The Fox
by beatracer
Summary: Fifteen years ago, Rhea Jaeger went missing. Now she's back, and she's more than she was before. SHIELD wants her to come under their wing, but can she trust Coulson, or Rumlow? Does she have a choice?
1. Chapter 1

A woman had been found alive but unresponsive in a side street, crowded with forgotten scaffolding. Normally such a thing might not warrant the attention of a man like Phil Coulson, or an intelligence agency like SHIELD. However this woman had been identified as Rhea Colette Jaeger, who had been reported missing fifteen years ago. The side street she had been found in was also the last place she had been seen. A security camera had caught footage of her being dragged into it by a man. An electric pulse had stopped the camera from seeing what had happened next but it hadn't needed to. Five years ago, fourty-five seconds after miss Jaeger had been pulled down that side street, it had exploded. There had been six casualties. Five had been people who had been killed by the stone from the blasted buildings. The other casualty was the charred practically non existent remains of -after DNA testing- turned out to be Maxwell Tilton, a registered sex offender, and the man who had dragged Rhea into the side street. SHIELD had taken an interest in the case because of the explosion, and because this was not the first time Rhea Jaeger had wound up on their radar. Since there had been the electric pulse only a fraction of a second before the detonation, it was assumed that this was a new type of bomb. However, there had been no trace of any device or chemical. There had been no trace of Rhea Jaeger either. They had presumed that she had died in the blast but there was no trace of another body, or they ashes of one. A year later the city had begun reconstruction. But a lot of those buildings hadn't really been important to begin with, and now there were skeletons covered in scaffolding plastic. And the city had chalked it up to a gas leak.

Coulson had been in charge of that case. He had been frustrated when he had to close it without knowing even a clue as to what the cause of the explosion or the pulse had been. He had been even more distraught over having nothing to tell Rhea's family. With no conformation of her death, she had been declared missing. Posters had been put up and ads placed in the papers. No news came. The pictures had grown faded and been covered up, and the file on the blast had

been forgotten in the SHIELD database.

And then yesterday, a doctor had entered a report about a young woman, found in that old side street. The report went through the hospital network, and a few key words pinged another forgotten system, and Coulson's computer had pinged. He had been on a call at that moment. He had glanced at the screen, and then stared at it. He had never expected for his fishing to catch anything. After two years he had forgotten he had even set up the program. But there it was, and there was the message. He had ended the call and booked a flight. An hour and a half later he pulling up next to the Warmenton's General hospital. A flash of the badge got him past security and protocol and into the room where the young woman was being treated.

He looked down into the comatose face. The last time he had seen that face, it had been smiling at from a missing persons flier. He asked what condition she had been found in. He was told that she had been found just like this, perfectly fine but comatose. They had shown him the clothes she had been in, and they had been the same ones the camera had shown her wearing the day she vanished. A call was made, and two hours later he and two SHIELD medical specialists were flying back to DC with Rhea Jaeger. It had turned out that there was still a camera across from the alley. Coulson had collected the footage and spent the plane ride watching it. When they had arrived at headquarters, the woman was taken to the medical department, and Coulson called Director Fury and showed him the footage.

"impossible," Fury had said, his brow furrowing.

"Sir, fifteen years ago this young woman vanished without a trace in a freak explosion, we were never able to identify the source of. Seven years before that?" he tapped the screen of his laptop and pulled up another security camera footage. This one was in a science museum. It looked down on a crowd of children and adults milling around. Coulson pointed to one grey head. It was standing still staring at an exhibit across the room. The figure began walking towards the display. You could just see a little grey hand reach out. It made contact with the display and there was a flash. The figure was now laying on its back halfway across the room. Director Fury narrowed his eye.

"and now yesterday," Coulson continued. "she appears out of nowhere, in the same spot where she vanished after what seems to be a freak lightning strike."

"what are you thinking, Agent?"

"I'm thinking she wouldn't be the first person we've encountered who was something...different."

"Another super human," Fury tilted his head, putting his hands in his pockets.

"I believe so, Sir."

"you think we've got another Banner on our hands?"

"I'm not sure yet if she'll be as unstable as Banner. She might be able to control her abilities."

"We'll just have to wait for her to wake up, I suppose."

"Should be soon. The medics said she had entered normal sleep just before we landed. I should get down there."

"you sure she won't blow up again when she wakes up?" Fury raised an eyebrow.

"I'm... fairly confident we don't need to worry about that," he said as he prepared to leave.

"I'll trust your judgment on that," Fury laughed a little. "Be careful. And send me those files."

Coulson exited and made his way to the medical department. Fury stood by his windows in his office, processing what he had just been shown. Another super human. That was interesting. He was a little worried about her stability but not overly so. Banner was working out alright after all. No, what really worried him was that fifteen year gap, that mysterious disappearance. Where have you been miss Jaeger, he wondered.


	2. Chapter 2

The man had grabbed her and pulled her down that empty side street. She had tried to fight back, but the element of surprise had been on his side. He had been bigger and stronger than her. He had pushed her down and had laughed as she struggled. He had smelled of stale beer and too much cheap cologne. His rough hand had been pushing down on her face and she had felt the broken glass of the sidewalk in her hair. Then he started to unbuckle his pants. She had never felt terror like that. Her pounding heart felt like it was choking her, she had tried to kick out but he had pinned her legs. The terror, the pounding of her heart, the anger- it had all welled up inside her and then... there had been a burst. Everything seemed to escape from her and she blacked out.

"Can you hear me?"

her eyes fluttered.

"Rhea, can you hear me?"

cautiously she opened her eyes. Where was she? This wasn't familiar. It looked a little like a hospital. She started. A hand took hers and another was placed on her shoulder.

"it's okay. You're safe here. You're safe."

who was that voice. She turned her head. A man sat next to her. He wore a dark suit and had pleasant if somewhat inexpressive face.

"'re you?" she managed hoarsely.

"My name is Phil Coulson. Do you know who you are?"

"yes," she spoke more clearly. "Rhea Jaeger."

He nodded smiling.

"and can you tell me what's the last thing you remember?"

the last thing... she looked at that pleasant face, and that dark suit, and the hospital like surroundings.

"a man." she said. "a man was attacking me."

"And that's the last thing you can remember?" he asked.

"yes."

"Because, Miss Jaeger," he paused. "it might be a little shocking but, you've been gone. You've been missing for a while."

"how long was I gone." it was a statement more than a question. Coulson raised a mental eyebrow. So, she wasn't surprised about a time lapse.

"Fifteen years."

"fifteen?" she laughed a little and looked up at the ceiling. Tears were forming in her eyes. She wiped them away. "well, tell me Mr. Coulson, just where am I? Does anyone know I'm back yet?"

"Back from where?"

"you tell me." they looked at each other carefully.

"you're in the medical care department of SHIELD." he said. "we took you from the Warmenton's general hospital. What with the... nature of your disappearance _and_ reappearance, we thought it best if you were brought here."

"i've never heard of SHIELD,"she sat up, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed.

"we're not as commonly known. SHIELD stands for Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorat."

"yeah I'm never remembering that," she stood up.

"It is a bit of a mouthful," he smiled.

"well Agent Coulson- I'm assuming it _is_ Agent- I don't fall into either Hazard or Espionage so I'd like to go home now."

"Soon. First we really would like you to tell us-"

"You asked me already and I said I don't remember. What I remember is being attacked by a strange man and then waking up here." she glared at him. Coulson seemed to consider the implications.

"Miss Jaeger," he said standing up as well. "I know that you're withholding information. But I also know that we probably don't seem the most trustworthy."

"I tend not to trust a suit on principle. You never know what it's trying to make look respectable."

"I think, once we are positive that you are stable, we can let you go home. Do you know where any of your family is?"

"no. But I'm sure you do." There was another pause. "anyways I was living with my friend Annie at the time. She's probably married now. Probably became a lawyer. Probably has kids."

"What about your foster family?"

she was quiet for a while. "I'll call them when I get home. Maybe." She looked at that honest nonjudgmental face and rolled her eyes.

"Look it's not as simple as 'Hey I'm Back!'" she said. "if it had only been a few years, sure. But fifteen? They're still around but they've got on with their lives. My foster parents will have had a dozen other kids through their house by now. To my foster siblings I'm just a cool story they can tell people. My friends are grown up and moved on by now," she thought for a moment. "well, except Collan. He's probably a deadbeat musician wanna be living in Seattle."

"that brings up another interesting point." Coulson said. "You're comment about time passing, I mean. You don't look thirty six. You still look exactly the same as you did on your posters."

"I do?" she felt her face. "interesting." she said quietly.

"Since you don't have anywhere to go, SHIELD will find you a place."

"No thanks."

"But-"

"No. If my wallet was with my clothes then I should have enough cash in there to find myself a place to stay. I'll get a job no time. I'm lucky with employment that way."

Coulson opened his mouth to argue.

"I'll take my clothes now if you don't mind," She held out her hand. "This paper nightie is getting a little airy."

Coulson picked up the bag by the bed and handed it to her.

"Thank you," she took it. "Now I'm going to get dressed, and then I'm leaving."

"we won't hold you against your will," he reached into his jacket and passed Rhea a calling card. "But we'll be in touch. Call me anytime." he turned to leave. Rhea looked into the bag of clothes.

"Why do I get the feeling that denim skirts aren't considered good fashion anymore?"

"I don't know," coulson said, hand on the door. "I think as long as you don't wear it with a tube top you should be fine." He opened the door. "Or those super thick flip flops people used to wear." He left.

Rhea looked into the bag again.

"Damn." she said.


	3. Chapter 3

Rhea had three hundred dollars in her wallet. She bought a bus ticket back to Warmenton. Fifteen years ago she had been apartment hunting there anyways. Might as well pick up where she left off. She arrived in the city by about five pm. She spent the rest of the day looking for vacancies. She slept in a hotel lobby that night and ate breakfast from a gas station doughnut shop. By three she had secured an apartment for herself. By five the next day she had another outfit and a job working at the thrift shop she had bought it from.

Over the course of the week she bought more of a wardrobe and living supplies. She found she was fairly pleased with where fashion had gone, and was thrilled with the new music she had missed. However she was mystified that leggings and high-wasted clothing had come back so soon. They had just gotten out of the 80's. Why was everyone so eager to climb back into them? Probably nothing had gotten such a strong reaction from her though as when she saw a complete collection of the Harry Potter books on the back shelf of the thrift store.

"They finished without me!?" she had wailed.

"what's wrong?" her coworker John had come hurrying over.

"Harry potter finished," she pointed accusingly at the set. "I didn't even get to go the book parties at Borders!"

"Pft! Borders is gone man. Have you been living under a rock?" he had laughed.

"what do you mean Border's is gone? Don't tell me- Barnes and Noble..!?"

things were going pretty well so far. She still hadn't worked up the nerve to contact anyone, though. Another astonishing discovery was that in the fifteen years she had been gone, the world seemed to have progressed technologically by about thirty years. There were all these tiny and complicated devices and then there was... the internet. She felt a little like she had fallen into some scifi story.

It had been just over a week after she had woken up in the SHIELD when she noticed she was being followed. She had noticed an attractive man with dark hair sitting at a cafe outside her work as she had clocked in. Then when she left she had noticed the same man perusing a book store down the street. It was a little odd, she had thought. She had been extra cautious walking home that evening. The next day she had seen the same man at the Cafe again. That was alright. It was the kind of place that had a lot of daily regulars. But this time she noticed the car. It was black with black windows. It had been there yesterday, and she could almost swear it had been outside her apartment the night before. Through out her day she would look out the window, searching for the man. She saw him once walking towards the black car. She saw him reach up to his ear and speak, apparently to himself. And someone walking down the street had done the same thing. There was more than one.

When she clocked out that evening, the black car turned on and drove away. She looked casualy around and saw the dark haired man, walking just as casually a few hundred feet behind her. Her heart skipped a beat and she began walking home. Her mind raced. She wasn't being paranoid was she? At the intersection she had to cross twice. She used it as a cover to look for any suspicious looking people. She saw the same dark haired man on the opposite side of the street apparently oblivious to the world around him and listening to his headphones. No. She was definitely not being paranoid. She saw her route home in her minds eye. This street would pass over train tracks and next to that another street. She could loose him there. Then she would get a hold of the Agent Coulson. She didn't know if these men were SHIELD or not but she didn't think it was probably such a good idea to ask them personally. The street had become deserted by this point, only cars drove by. She couldn't hear anyone talking but she could still hear those footsteps on the other side of the road. She turned around to make sure it was still him she was hearing. He had been looking at her from back there. Their eyes met. Rhea turned back around and booked it.

The man ripped the soundless headphones from his ears and gave chase. He yelled something into his earpiece as he ran. Rhea's feet pounded on the pale concrete. She felt the power in her rising its curious head. Was she going to use it? No. Not yet anyways, not anymore than she normally did. Maybe if this man turned out to be a really fast runner, though.

"Hey!" she heard him shout at her. That sounded close. He was a fast runner, but Rhea had reached the underpass. She looked down as she ran. It wasn't a very high overpass, this street. It still made her stomach flip and that rational, strictly human part of her brain screamed the laws of physics at her. But she could do it. She knew this. She knew it was child's play compared to what she was capable of now. She reached out, put her hand on the metal guardrail, and kicked her running feet up and over it.

She felt the wind whip at her hair and tug at her clothes. She kept her eyes focused on the sunset and not on the ground that rushed up to meet her. She heard the man yelling as she had jumped. She hit the road below as if she had jumped off a swing. Her landing was unskilled and she rolled painfully over the asphalt. She got up gingerly and ran on. The man had run a little further and jumped onto the grassy slope that connected the overpass to the ground. It was almost vertical but he had training and rolled skillfully down its side and rising to his feet in a smooth flow.

Rhea ran past the weed strewn sidewalks of the seedy streets. They were entering the part of the city where the warehouse and factory districts merged. There wouldn't be many people if any, and Rhea felt confident she could lose her pursuers there. Just then that tinted black car came racing down a side street onto the one Rhea was running along. As it drew up beside her, she leapt in front of it, smashing into the windshield. The car screeched to halt and she rolled across it and ran towards the maze of old brick buildings. The man skidded over the hood of the car and followed her path. As she entered the dirt corridor between two of the buildings she felt something hit her from behind. She and her pursuer went sprawling in the dirt, with him landing several feet away from him. He was back on his feet almost instantly. Rhea jumped to her feet as well, ready for attack. She could feel her pupils narrowing, her nails growing.

"Woah, woah, easy," the man had his hands out in front of him, though his legs were still in a defensive position. "It's alright, I'm with SHIELD. I'm agent Rumlow." he showed her a badge. He had the kind of voice that was naturally slightly hoarse sounding. "Coulson assigned us to keep an eye on you."

"Really?" she snapped. "and I don't suppose it occurred to him that he might want to let me know I was going to have strange men stalking me?"

"actually it did," he panted slightly. "he thought it would be best not to let you know."

"smart."

"yeah actually it is. Cause we might not be the only ones who were following you."

"what do you mean."

"Look, Coulson wanted to see you tonight. So why don't we go and let him explain things, alright?"

"Alright." she said reluctantly.


	4. Chapter 4

Rhea glared at Coulson from across her tiny kitchen table. "Team Stalker", as she referred to them, were standing patiently in her cramped sitting room.

"I thought you were trying to convince me SHIELD was trustwor

thy," she said.

"Rhea, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you we were tailing you. I know it was probably rather alarming-"

"you're damn right."

"but if you knew that we were the ones following you, and you noticed someone watching you then you would not have been alarmed. You would have assumed they were with us and unfortunately there's a chance they might not be."

"Dark-and-brooding over there mentioned something about that. Why would any one be following me? I mean really, why are you even following me?"

"SHIELD is watching you mostly to make sure no one else is. As for why someone else would be interested in you, well I have my theories, but I think you know."

"Know what? There is nothing special about me! I'm not important or-"

"bullshit." snorted Dark-and-brooding (or Rumlow as he called himself. )

"excuse me?" Rhea's glare was deadly.

"Miss Jaeger," said Coulson. "I know you're not telling me the truth. I know you're not like other people."

"And just what do you know about it?" she spat.

"how about that jump you just made off that over pass? You should have at least broken your legs. I think that both that electric pulse and the explosion that blew apart that street all those years ago came from you. I think it all started when you were fourteen, on that field trip to the science museum."

"How did you know about that!?" Rhea asked horrified. Her face blanched as she realized she had just shown her hand.

"It's our job to know about that sort of thing," Coulson said simply. "We saw the security footage. Rhea what exactly happened that day?" he leaned forward. His face was so earnest. Rhea's shoulders sagged.

"I didn't know that anything had happened until... until that day I disappeared." she said. "do you know what that exhibit that I touch was?"

"a display of ancient Nordic Jewelry if I remember correctly." he said. She nodded.

"there was this giant... thing. Some kind of stone work, and it had this stone in the middle of it, like a garnet but brighter. I remember getting that feeling like someone was staring at me. I remember turning around and it was like that stone was all I could see. I don't remember walking to it but I did and then I reached out to touch it. I don't know why I did that. It was like I just knew that I had to touch that stone. And then there was a flash and..."

"you were lying on the ground."

"yeah. I felt fine. And nothing weird ever happened to me after that. The only thing different was the stone."

"what about it?" Coulson hadn't learned this detail.

"It was dull. Before it had looked like someone was shining a flashlight through red crystal. After I touched it, it looked like red plastic."

"so eventually you say you discovered something was different. So what was different Rhea? What had happened to you?"

"I was made whole again. And then I exploded."

"you exploded?" Rumlow stared at her.

"made whole..?" asked Coulson.

"Eh," she waved her hand. "Don't worry about it. It's a little beyond your comprehension, honestly. Sorry. There was something in that stone. When I touched it, it went inside me. It was dormant until that man attacked me, then I guess the type and level of stress activated it. And now I'm special." she said the last part in sarcastically smug voice.

"so these powers activate and then you just," Rumlow snapped his fingers. "vanish. What happened there?"

"that's another bit that's beyond your comprehension." She smiled up at him, but only with her mouth. He glowered back.

"You see Rhea," said Coulson. "SHIELD was created as a counterpart to the organizations out there who move in secret to accomplish their dark ambitions. Organizations such as these pay attention to the same things we do. We had a tip that a certain group has their eye on you."

"that's great and all but I don't plan on joining any secret societies," she said in an I'm-all-set tone of voice.

"i suspect they know they won't be able to recruit you. At least not willingly. But this particular group may think they can harness whatever abilities you have."

"yeah, they can. It's called a flame thrower. Just stick a taser on the end of one and bingo. Powers harnessed."

"sorry but just what are your abilities?" interjected Rumlow.

"being fabulous. Obviously."

"the point is," Coulson interupted them. "that this group- and possibly others- are interested you, and they will come after you. SHIELD would like to make sure that you not only stay safe but that you learn to control your powers."

"I can look after myself. And I'm dealing with my powers just fine, thankyou."

"really?" he tilted his head. "because judging by that dumpster and the scorch marks around your apartment, I'd say you're having some trouble."

"look I don't want an institutionalized life inside some SHIELD facility somewhere! I just want to live a normal life, with normal problems."

"I know you do," Coulson assured her. "but you have to understand that a normal life is not very likely option anymore. These organizations out there, you're not the first super human they've found. It wont be regular people hunting you down. It'll be the super soldiers, and if you think iphones are cray, just wait till you see the technology they'll be coming at you with. I can't guarantee that they won't go after the people closest to you."

"there is no one close to me."

"I see," Coulson looked at the woman before him. He wondered if there was always more to what she did. "nevertheless, they were close to you at one point. And what about your current employer? Your coworker? What about when these people are involved?"

"Agent coulson," she stood up. "If any of theses faceless bad guys you mention try to hurt me or anyone else around me, you will not even find their ashes. This I promise you. Now please leave."

Coulson stood up. With a wave from his hand, "team stalker" began to file out of her apartment.

"this team will continue to be on surveillance. Please consider the offer miss Jaeger. Also, this is for you." he handed her a cell phone. "you need one, especially if we need to contact each other."

Rhea escorted him to the door, unsure what to say. Rumlow hung back, waiting for coulson and the others to leave. When they had gone he turned in the doorway to face Rhea, his dark deep set eyes staring into hers.

"I know Coulson's a pretty calm dude," he said. "and he has a way of making things sound better than they actually are. But trust me, these guys that are out there, these organization, they are not to be taken lightly. If you're really as powerful as you claim, then we can't allow you to fall into their hands."

He turned to leave, but another thought played on his mind.

"if you care anything aout the people around you," he said. "You should really cooperate with us."

"If these mysterious shadow organizations are really that bad, then they'll go after the people around me whether I cooperate or not." she shut the door.

...

...

...

chapter art:

art/chapter-4-picture-663013300


	5. Chapter 5

Rhea didn't sleep well that night. Her mind raced over the possibilities before her. Questions rose and fell like waves. Was she doing the right thing? Should she contact her old friends, or foster parents? She knew her abilities, she had spent a lifetime with them, but that had been just that; another lifetime in another plane. She had not yet accustomed herself to them back here in this world. If there were other powerful people out there and they came after her, she wasn't actually one hundred percent sure she could in fact hold them off. At least, not without causing huge collateral damage. But did she want whatever life SHIELD held for her? Did she want a normal one? Could she even trust SHIELD's motives? She wanted to, she wanted to trust Coulson. She actually quite liked him, even if he did wear a suit. And then there was that Rumlow. 'What about him?' her mind snapped at her and pushed the memory of his face aside.

She awoke suddenly to the sound of her alarm. She got dressed, ate her breakfast and made her way towards work. Throughout the day she noticed the familiar faces in her background of the SHIELD surveillance team. The longer her coworker Collan was around her, the more he too seemed to droop with fatigue and depression. The customers, too, seemed to leave not quite as energetically as they entered. Walking home, she registered the presence of Rumlow somewhere behind her. That night she slept a little better, aided by the drowsiness of the day. The next day passed by with slightly more enthusiasm. As she walked home there was a little more life to her step. The same questions still plagued her thoughts, however. Up ahead as the road became an over pass, there was a concrete divider by the side of the road that allowed for a moment a privacy from the passing cars. She stopped here, leaning against the guardrail behind her, and just let herself breathe in the summer air. A minute later Rumlow came hurrying around the bend to her. He stopped when he saw her just standing there.

"what are you doing?" he said.

"just enjoying the afternoon."

"we didn't see you walk out from this strip."

"nope."

"you probably shouldn't just stand out in the open like this."

"Just how immediate is this threat to my safety anyways? Should I be expecting to get kidnapped off the street at any moment? Or will they be a little more subversive? Maybe sneak into my apt instead."

"we have eyes on your apt."

"of course you do. But you didn't answer my question."

"it's not really my place to say-"

"you had no trouble saying things the other night."

They seemed to size each other up.

"our sources tell us that there is a certain interest in you."

"why? You people hardly knew enough about me to get your attention, so how does someone else be so interested in me?"

"they probably were just paying more attention to you from the beginning," he looked around. "We should keep walking."

"so walk."

"are you determined to make this difficult!?"

"I didn't ask for SHIELD's help, okay. I'm just here trying to figure out what do with myself and it would be a lot easier without y'all breathing down my neck!"

"yeah? And if it wasn't for us 'breathing down your neck' as you put it, your neck would very likely be on an examination table in some experimental facility!"

"why do you care though? I mean really, why do you care!? So what if I got kidnapped and experimented on, how does that effect SHIELD?"

Rumlow sighed and rubbed his brow.

"Look," he said. He removed an his earpiece. "the group that's after you- Moth, they call themselves- they specialize in weaponizing people. Whether it's from turning them into brainless soldiers, or because they were able to somehow use them, like you would nuclear power. So if they get their hands on you, yes it would be SHIELD's problem because eventually we would have to fight you, or fight weapons based off of your powers. Moth has acquired some good power lately. We can't afford for them to get any more."

Rhea was silent.

"That's why we're keeping an eye on you. That's why we need to keep walking, and not hang around where we're exposed, alright. I mean, Coulson and Fury are being foolishly generous, in my opinion, by letting you still live here and go to a job. It's a huge risk."

"if what you said is true, it probably is foolish," Rhea said quietly. "Alright. We'll keep walking. But I do have one request."

Rumlow raised his eyebrows.

"Can you not walk behind me? I mean really, it's like you're stalking me. If you have to escort me home every night... it's just kind of weird, ya know? Someone's gonna notice and call the cops on you."

"how else am I supposed to keep an eye on you?" he laughed a little.

"I don't know." she thought for a second. "If we could talk to each other it would help. Ya know, like if I had one of those ear thingies. That way we'd be kind of connected and it would feel less like I'm being followed."

"These aren't toys," he held his up. "these are valuable communication technology that allow the team to stay in touch."

"So I wonder how Coulson would feel about you telling me about Moth?"

"I'll see if we have an extra one lying around."

"sounds good."

She turned and continued walking towards home. After a minute. Rumlow returned his earpiece to his ear and followed after her.


	6. Chapter 6

"psssh testing."

"it works."

"haha! This is cool! I feel like James Bond."

"..."

"you still there?"

"Oh, sorry I was... thinking about something. By the way you don't need to touch the earpiece every time you talk."

"Oh okay."

Rhea was walking home from work with Rumlow several yards behind her. He had managed to scrounge up an earpiece for them to talk with, per Rhea's request.

"so," said Rumlow. "You thought anymore about just joining SHIELD?"

"Haven't thought about much else. But Just what exactly would a life with SHIELD entail?"

"You'd really have to hash that out with Coulson."

"Coulson," she chuckled. "He's been great. He texts me once a day to ask how I am. It's really helped keep my spirits up."

"He's a good man, Coulson."

"That almost sounded disapproving."

"No! No, of course not. The world needs good men."

"uhuh."

"what?"

"nothin'."

"You're very good at getting under the skin."

"thank you. I do strive for great things."

Rumlow laughed.

"by the way," Rhea was drawing near to the cluster of little stores she passed on her walk. "I'm gonna stop in at Juju's. I hear they have fantastic smoothies!"

"what? No, look, Rhea-"

"It'll take two seconds! It's not like Moth's henchman are waiting for me in the bathroom of Juju's Smoothie-emporium, is it?"

"they could be."

"well if they are then I will buy you a smoothie, kay?" she pulled open the door to Juju's and entered, to the sound of Rumlow's frustrated protests in her ear.

"Hold the door!" a woman was hurrying towards her. Rhea held the door open and let the woman enter in front of her.

"thanks!"

"No problem."

The woman went up to the counter and placed her order. Rhea surveyed the menu and began to scrounge for a few extra dollars at the bottom of her bag. She started to walk towards the counter but someone bumped into her. Rhea and the woman cried out as the woman's smoothie cascaded down the front side of Rhea's pants.

"Oh god! I'm so sorry! Oh, I'm so sorry! Oh goodness!"

"ah, it's fine. I'm sure it'll wash out just fine," Rhea said staring down at her leg as blueberry colored drink chilled her skin. "did any of it get you?"

"oh a little bit, but not as bad as you."

"Rhea?" Rumlows voice sounded in her ear. "What's going on?"

"Benny grab a mop!" yelled the girl at the counter. She turned towards the two women. "there's a bathroom right around there." She pointed around the counter where a one person bathroom was set a little ways back.

"Thank you!" the woman said. "Come on," she motioned to Rhea. "I think I have some Stain-b-gone in my purse."

"It's really okay," said Rhea following hesitantly.

"Oh my goodness, no. I can't let you go walking around like that! We need to at least get the majority of it off."

As she followed the woman into the bathroom Rhea could see Rumlow starting to cross the street towards the shop. Once in the little one man bathroom the woman pointed at the paper towel dispenser.

"start getting that smoothie off your leg and I'm going to see if I have any stain remover."

Rhea walked wetly over to said paper towels and began to wipe up the smoothie from her leg. Behind her she could her the other woman rummaging in her large purse.

"ah here it is," she heard her say.

Several things happened almost instantly. The first was the excruciating pain that suddenly stabbed into the back Rhea's neck. This caused her to screamed and dropped the paper towels. The next thing was the pain disappearing and being replaced with an odd tickling sensation. She whipped around to face the woman. The woman looked at her in a horrified shock. She was holding a baton looking object that flickered with electricity. Rhea's shot out a clawed and blackened hand, and grabbed the woman by the throat. Rumlow's voice was shouting in Rhea's ear, but she didn't hear it. She snarled and electricity suddenly coursed from her fist into the woman it held. The woman bucked and screamed and the hot electricity ran through her. Rhea dropped the woman to floor. She lay twitching and smoking slightly. The door crashed open as Rumlow entered.

"What happened!?" his traveled to the woman on the floor. Rhea turned to say something.

"Was that a member of th-"

"JESUS CHRIST!" Rumlow leapt backwards, his hand reaching inside his jacket and his eyes sweeping over Rhea. Rhea took a shocked step back herself. She turned to look in the mirror, and gasped. Her eyes, now golden with slitted pupils, were surrounded by black. There were black markings from the corners of her eyes half-way down her cheeks. She looked down at her arms, which were black from the tip of her clawed fingers to her elbows. She looked back up at Rumlow's expression, and ran past him, out of the store into the street. She ran on, pushing the people on the sidewalk, not looking back.

Two more agents met Rumlow in the little bathroom.

"Take care of this." he ordered. "Any one see where she went?" he asked touching his earpiece.

"If that streak I saw go past was her," said a voice over the system. "Then she seems to be heading towards her apartment."

"Alright. A team you take of the situation here, I'm going to the apartment." Rumlow ran out of the smoothie store and in the direction of Rhea's apartment. As he rounded the corner to her block he called in to the rest of his team.

"B team do you have eyes on the asset?"

there was no reply.

"B team? Bridgeson! Garret! Any body!?" silence. "Shit! B team is down, I repeat B team is down. Any one from A team who can, rendezvous at Rhea's apartment. Christenson, contact SHIELD, I'm gonna need another strike team ready to mobilize."

"Roger that."

Rumlow kept to the sides of the buildings as he crept towards Rhea's apartment complex. He drew his gun and held it at the ready.

Rhea slammed her door behind her and leaned against it. She breathed out a shaky breath, and wiped her eyes.

"Why so sad?"

She jumped and her head flew up. A man sat in her living room. He was dressed simply in non descript street clothes. His posture and his shaved head told the viewer that he was no ordinary person, however. Rhea slowly straightened herself.

"Who the hell are you?" she growled.

"ooo, so impolite." he said. "I'm a representative of a corporation known as Moth. We deal with providing extraordinary people a safe place to express themselves."

"I think I just met one of your consultants."

"oh please," he laughed. "no we were simply verifying that you were in fact extraordinary, see?" he stood up and approached, turning his phone screen towards her. There was first person perspective of someone attacking her in a bathroom.

"and you are far from ordinary." his eyes flickered over her altered features. "sorry if our methods seem a little extreme. We can't afford to deal with niceties."

"How did you get in here? SHIELD is monitoring my apartment."

"yes, SHIELD is oddly determined to keep you isolated from the world aren't they? I suppose Agent Coulson gave some speech about how you're no longer fit to live with people anymore." he paced slowly around with his hands in his pockets.

"No. Not exactly. He just told me that people like you would be coming for me. Please," she cut the stranger off. "don't patronize me with one of those 'oh but we're not really the bad guys' speeches. I trust you about as much as I would five cent sushi from a New Orleans street cart."

"well then," he grinned at her. "I'll jump right to the part where I kidnap you then."

"Not likely," Rhea burst into flames and shot a white hot tongue of it at the man. It wrapped around him, sending him backwards over the sofa. He stood up and patted out his burning clothes.

"Ah," he sighed, smiling at Rhea. "sorry sweet heart," he jumped over the burning couch at her, knocking her to the floor. He whispered in her ear, "But I'm fire proof."

"Fire's not all I have," she grunted. There were a couple of staticky sparking sounds and bolt of electricity shot from Rhea and hit the laptop on the coffee table.

"Wow, hohoho!" the man stood up. "Looks like you can't use that one yet. Don't worry we'll train you."

Rhea stood up, breathing heavy. She was about as skilled in hand to hand combat as an artichoke, it would be impossible to beat him that way, she knew. But she was faster than him, and possibly stronger. If she timed it right she might be able to get in a lucky shot. The smoke alarm began to sound. The man lunge at her again. Rhea did her best to fight back, well aware that the man was toying with her. Lucky for her though, as he was leaving openings. Now! She lashed out, fingers flexed. He tried to get out of the way but she was too quick. Her claws sliced the side of his throat. The man was stunned but he would soon recover. She struck again while she still had some advantage. This one caught the side of his face and slashed through his jacket as he raised his arm to defend himself. She reached determinedly for his face with her first hand. He had recovered, and caught her by the wrist and twisted her arm.

"That hurt!" he held one of his hands to his bleeding neck. With her free hand Rhea tried to claw at the fist that held her. Before she could get to his hand he jerked her arm hard, flinging her across the room. She hit the wall and fell to the floor. The man walked towards her, she stretched out a shaky hand in terror. The air round the man exploded.

As Rumlow reached the apartment building he noticed something on the sidewalk. He bent down and picked up an earpiece.

"Damnit Rhea!" he swore. He through open the door and ran across the entry hall to the elevator. He slammed on the up button. Some where above him, old pulleys screeched and grinded into action. The elevator doors opened and he flew through them. He pressed the seventh floor button. After a moment that felt all together too long, the doors slid close and the elevator began making its way up to the seventh floor. He tried to ignore the jaunty tasteless tune that seemed to mock the urgency of the situation. He paced in the elevator, as it crept upwards. Suddenly it stopped and the doors slid open. Rumlow looked at the floor number. It was only the fourth floor. When the doors opened he saw a chubby young man in a graphic tee step forward.

"Oh no you don't," he held up his gun, and pressed the door close button. "You catch the next one." The young man held up his hands standing perfectly still as the doors squeaked close.

Finally the elevator halted at the seventh floor. Rumlow was through the doors as soon as they were wide enough. He crept quickly down the hall to Rhea's apartment. He slowed as he neared the door, there was a crash and thump from inside the apartmetn. He lifted his gun, ready himself, and kicked the door. Just as the he did there was an explosion that sent the door flying backwards towards Rumlow, pinning him against the hallway wall. He felt rumble landing around him. As things seemed to settle, he pushed the door off him and stood up, ears ringing. Through the now open doorway he could see fire in Rhea's apartment. He ran inside, gun at the ready. One whole wall was missing, leaving the apartment open to the outside. Half of the floor, and a section of the ceiling had been blown away. Most of what remained of the apartment was burning. He looked around but there was no sign of anyone inside. He couldn't see Rhea in any of the ruin in the apartment bellow or the street. He heard a familiar whirring sound and looked up. A black helicopter was flying past over head. Rumlow took aim, but it was no good. The copter was out of range already. Rumlow pulled out a cell phone and ran from the apartment.

"Coulson" he said. "They got Rhea. She just blew apart half a building trying to protect herself, but they got her. They left in a black chopper, headed south. B team was eliminated. I'll explain that in person, right now we need to get a team mobilized to track down that helicopter. Most likely, yes. We have a second attacker in custody who will be able to tell us something. Hopefully anyways. I didn't have time to see if they were alive, even. Yes, sir. Understood." he hung up. In the distance he could hear the sirens approaching.

...

...

...

chapter art:

art/fox-chapter-6-art-663048539


	7. Chapter 7

Coulson's was already falling into his long stride the moment his feet hit the pavement. Rumlow escorted him from the helicopter to a row of three semi's. They looked like ordinary nondescript trucks on the outside, but on the inside it was a different story. Inside they were portable state of the art technological units used by the forensics teams that had arrived ten minutes before Coulson. The two agents were headed for the farthest one. Men and women in jackets labeled SHIELD FORENSICS ran to and fro around them.

"Just what exactly happened?" Coulson demanded.

"Moth agent ambushed her in the bathroom of the smoothie shop. When I ran in to neutralize the hostile, they had already been taken care of and Rhea had... transformed. When she realized her physical appearance had changed, she ran back to her apartment."

"Where were you?" they climbed the ramp into the back of the semi.

"Right behind her, sir, but she's much faster than an average human, and my pursuit was delayed by the situation in the bathroom. Moth agents had managed to somehow already taken out B team, and they were waiting to ambush Rhea in her apartment."  
"she was your responsibility Rumlow!"

"I know that, sir, and I-"

"we assigned you because you and your men are supposed to be some of our best. Frankly, I'm very disappointed in how this situation was handle. I have four dead agents, and that young woman is on her way to god knows what."

they had entered into a small room with monitors and a few guards standing by another, heavier looking door. Coulson turned to a man by a computer.

"How is it going Huvrassi?" he asked.

"hard to say," the officer said. "she's not saying much. Gregson thinks..."

The two talked quietly, with Rumlow waiting behind Coulson. He ground his teeth as he fumed silently. Did Coulson think he didn't realize the gravity of all of this? Those were his men on their way to the coroners- his. It was his mission that had just gone to shit, and his charge that had just been abducted. He thought of her face, starring at him in horror. This was his fault. He could have done more- done better- and he knew it.

"alright," Coulson had straightened up. "unlock the door, I'm tagging in." there was a buzz and one of the guards pulled open the thick door. Coulson entered and a moment later another agent exited. On the screen in front of Huvrassi showed footage of the room beyond the door. The walls of the inner room were a dull silver color with a honeycomb-like pattern of tiles. There was an empty table in the center of the room, where a woman was sitting in handcuffs. Rumlow watched Coulson approached the table.

"Can we get sound on this?" he asked.

"sorry," said the officer. "only if Coulson gives the okay."

.

"so, miss..." Coulson checked the file he held. "Addis. I hear you might be able to help me with something."

Miss Addis sat silent, staring straight ahead. She looked a little worse for wear. But then, thought Coulson, electrocution could do that to a person. He sat down opposite the woman.

"I'll be frank with you, Addis," he said. "you are now in SHIELD custody, and you will be for the rest of your life. And let me tell you, SHIELD would love to squeeze you for every last lick of information you have on Moth. They will use everything they've got on you. I'd like to know some of those secrets you're keeping myself, but I'm willing to settle for just one. If you tell me what I'm going to ask you, I think we could reach an agreement where you spend the rest of your time in a prison facility, and not in an interrogation facility."

The woman leaned forward slightly. "Fuck. You." she said. Coulson smirked a little.

.

Outside Rumlow was starting to shift his weight from foot to foot.

"Come on Coulson," he muttered. "I could have that bitch talking by now."

.

"i saw what else you were carrying in your purse, Ms. Addis." Coulson titled his head, studying the woman in front of him. "you thought you were going to be taking in miss Jaeger yourself. Of course you see now that that was never a possibility. Your superiors used you, a random expendable, to see how Rhea would react when attacked. And now you're going to be spending the rest of your days suffering, because of them."

"If I'm so expendable," she sneered. "then what makes you think I'd know enough to make it worthwhile to torture me?"

"interrogate." corrected Coulson. "And you're right. For all we know, any efforts made against you could be completely pointless. But then again I could be wrong. Perhaps you're really a trustworthy agent, who's loyal enough to sacrifice herself for the achievement of Moth's goals. In that case you probably have quite a lot you could tell us. We won't know until we try though, will we? However, as I said, if you answer my question, then we can talk about plea bargains."

He leaned in closer.

"where is Rhea Jaeger right now?"

"fuck... you." she repeated.

Coulson sighed. He stood up and pulled out his phone.

"Eddison it is, then."

"Eddison!?" the woman sat up straight, then seemed to relax. "Nice try agent," she smirked. "but that's just an old rumor. SHIELD doesn't have an Eddison facility, or anything like it."

Coulson looked at her with that pleasant emotionless face he wore so well. "You really _don't_ know much, do you?" He turned and walked to the door.

"Wait!" the woman yelled. Coulson turned around expectantly.

"If the helicopter's landed already, then they'll be in an armored box stake body truck, headed south west, towards Mexico."

"thank you, miss Addis. That's very helpful."

"I want a plea deal!" she called at his retreating back. The door buzzed and opened.

"I'll send someone in to discuss terms with you directly." he said. The door hissed closed behind him.


	8. Chapter 8

"Sir, let me lead this one."

Rumlow was arguing with Coulson as they left the trailer. Coulson was giving out orders, ignoring Rumlow.

"Look, sir, I know I may have messed up on this case but I swear I can get Rhea back. It's like you said, my team is one of the best! You won't have to worry."

"no," Coulson finally turned to face Rumlow. "I want you to stay here and assist the forensics teams. Keep an eye on our guest." Rumlow opened his mouth for a counter argument but Coulson cut him off.

"That's an order Rumlow!"

"yes sir," he said, clenching his jaw.

"Alright people, come on let's move!" Coulson shouted. He and the new team he had brought ran back to the helicopters. Rumlow watched them rise into the air and disappear out of sight. He swore and headed over to one of the forensics trailers to see what had been found so far.

"ah, agent Rumlow. I'm agent Harding." a dark haired woman greeted him when he entered. "I'm in charge of this forensics team."

"what have you found so far, in regards to the men I lost?" he asked.

"whoever took them out was good, very good. It looks like there were multiple assailants. Some of the men were taken down from long rage, with a sniper rifle. The rest were taken out quickly and quietly at close range. No rifling on the bullets, no finger prints, and no useful fibers."

Rumlow nodded as she spoke. He hadn't anticipated much.

"we did get a shot of a man who we suspect was the man- or one of the men- who attacked miss Jaeger in her apartment. Take a look." she taped on her screen and pulled up a camera footage. A barrel chested man with close shaven hair was entering Rhea's apartment building. Rumlow recognized a fellow professional when he saw one.

"how did you get this?" he asked.

"turns out the tenant of one of the ground apartments next door is a little paranoid. One of their expensive little cameras happens to look out the window towards our apartment's entrance. They came forward with the tapes in case they had accidentally caught footage of the bomber."

"are you running facial recognition?"

"of course," she sounded slightly insulted. "if he's in any system, we should have him pinned by tomorrow at the latest."

"tomorrow!?"

"there's a lot of databanks with a lot of faces. But it could also be a lot sooner than that. We could get a hit within the next hour or two."

…...

The helicopters raced over the highways hunting for the suspect vehicle. These were busy roads however, and there were plenty of trucks on them.

"how do we know they aren't on the side roads, sir?" one of the men looked up from his binoculars.

"time," Coulson replied. "side roads might provide more cover but they're far slower than taking a main highway. SHIELD could determine their direction and cut them off."

"still no sign of a likely vehicle," a voice spoke over the communications channel.

"Then look for unlikely ones!" said Coulson.

"I found 'em." another voice came through.

"where?" demanded Coulson.

"up ahead at exit 6, sir. The highway curves off and connects to I-106. They're not alone though, they have two black SUVs escorting them."

Coulson relayed the new info to the pilot. His helicopter veered to the right when they reached the turn. The other copter followed.

"there they are, sir!" the man with the binoculars shouted. A large box truck, non nondescript and suspiciously thick looking, was racing through the few other cars that were traveling the highway at one A.M. Two black SUVs seemed to be keeping it company.

"Good eyes, Barton," Coulson said over the comlink.

"thank you, sir." said Barton's voice.

…...

Rumlow trudged back into the prison trailer. Huvrassi nodded to him as he entered. On the monitor he could see Addis talking with a liaison officer.

"working out the specifics of the plea deal," Huvrassi explained. On the monitor, the liaison stood up and walked over to the door. Huvrassi punched a button, the door buzzed and one of the guards pulled it open. The officer came walking out, and stopped briefly when she saw Rumlow.

"Just finished working out the specifics of the plea bargain," she said, packing a folder into her bag. "Excuse me," she brushed past him. "I still have a lot to do." and she left the trailer.

"A plea bargain," Rumlow snorted, turning back to the monitor. "What that trash deserves is-"

He stopped. The image of Addis was standing up and stretching her arms out. Rumlow narrowed his eyes.

"Don't you think Coulson got that information from her rather quickly?" he asked Huvrassi.

"He certainly wasn't in there long," Huvrassi conceded. "But Coulson good at reasoning with people."

Addis looked up at the camera. It wasn't blatant, but it was there, playing at the corners of her mouth. She was smiling. Rumlow narrowed his eyes.

"Can you pull up a map on one of these screens?" he asked Huvrassi.

"Yeah, sure! What are you looking for?"

"the area where we found that helicopter. Can you show me that?"

"no problem, just give me a moment." Huvrassi typed on one of the keyboards. On the monitor next to the one with the cell footage a map popped up. Rumlow looked at it carefully.

"So the helicopter was found right around there," he pointed. "And that road right there leads directly to the highway."

"And the highway makes more sense than these other back roads." Huvrassi said.

"yeah it does. Back roads would be too slow, except," Rumlow pointed again. "It looks like we have train tracks right over here. Depending on your resources and what type of trains run there, that could also be an expedient method for them to take."

"mmmm," Huvrassi started typing again. "it... looks like...yeah, that's a cargo track, but it was shut down two years ago for repairs that never seemed to have come."

"I think I should double check on the information our friend gave Coulson," Rumlow said. He started for the door. The two guards drew closer together, blocking him.

"Sorry, Sir," Huvrassi apologized. "But you'll need to get clearance first." Rumlow sighed.

"of course," he said. "Sorry, normally it wouldn't matter this much but that woman may be sending Coulson and those men into a trap. This woman needs to be asked questions by someone who's not as sensitive."

"Wh-" Huvrassi started to speak. Rumlow whipped around and caught the man head, slamming it onto the console he sat at. The two guards shouted, and jumped at Rumlow as Huvrassi slumped to floor. Rumlow grabbed the first guard by the wrist and the neck, and kicked the second one back against the wall. He brought the first guard's head down onto his knees a few times and threw him backwards as guard number two came at him again. The second guard had pulled out a tasing rod. Rumlow ducked under his swing and pulled the man's arm back and up, locking his legs with his own. The man's hand released the rod and Rumlow grabbed it. The first guard took a dazed swing over the head of his comrade at Rumlow, who dodged and stuck the taser right against the man's forehead. The guard collapsed. Rumlow touched the electric rod to the back of the neck of guard he was restraining. The man yelled and jerk and then fell silent. Rumlow let the man fall to the floor. He stepped over the unconscious bodies to the console and slammed his fist on one of the buttons. The door buzzed. He walked over to it dragging one of the guards. He pulled open the door, lay the guard down across the threshold and entered. The door rested against the man's side instead of closing.

"what's going on?" Addis looked at him, baffled, then she smiled coyly. "you here to break me out? My hero."

"no," Rumlow strutted towards her. "I just had to give myself the clearance to talk with you. And do we need to talk."

Addis sensed the foreboding in the air, and took a couple steps back.

"See, I'm thinking you gave up the information about that truck pretty quickly," he continued. "and you look awfully cool for a prisoner who just betrayed their team. So I'm thinking you lied, and _my_ team is flying into a trap of some sort. So, I will give you an opportunity to do this the painless way. Tell me the truth right now, and I won't hurt you."

"What are you gonna do SHIELD?" the woman sneered, but a little uncertainly. SHIELD was supposed to have certain ethical codes that said things like, 'SHIELD members are not to use other SHIELD members as door stops.' Addis wasn't so sure that this man had read the rule book.

"You know I was really kind of hoping you wouldn't take the nice way." Rumlow smiled. Then he was on top her, shoving her down onto the table, holding her by the back of the neck.

"What are you doing!?" she yelled, her voice slightly muffled as one of her cheeks was being smushed against the table top.

"Getting answers," he said. He grabbed a finger on her left hand. "Where is Rhea really?" he asked. Addis remained silent. He bent the tip of her finger back, there was a snap, and Addis screamed.

"You have twenty-seven more finger joints. Let's see if we can get 'em all. Where did they take Rhea?"

Addis gasped through the pain but still said nothing.

"Alright." Rumlow bent her finger back again, there was another crack. The woman screamed.

…...

"Barton! Take out their their tire!"

Gunmen were firing at the SHIELD helicopters from the SUVs. In the chopper next to Coulson Barton drew back his bow and let an fly. It hit the truck's front right tire. The vehicle swerved drastically and then spun for several hundred yards before coming to a halt. Four men from Barton's chopper dropped down on their lines and attached themselves to the sides of the truck. Two of them fired at the SUVs while the other two began to attached two additional lines to the back doors of the truck. The two SUVs pulled off and sped ahead the truck, and away from the choppers. Realization trickled down Coulson's spine.

…...

Rumlow came running out of the prison trailer and grabbed a passing agent by their jacket front.

"Get a hold of Coulson!" he roared. "At all costs! He and his men are heading into a trap, Jaeger isn't on the truck she's on a train!" He started running toward a group of parked vehicles.

"The train is heading north, towards Canada," he called back to agent. "And send someone to check on the prison trailer! Go!"

The agent scurried off, shouting out Rumlow's instructions. Rumlow reached the vehicles and looked around quickly. Someone pulled up on a motorcycle. It was one of the forensics team members, an evidence bag was strapped to the back of the bike.

"What do you need, sir?" they asked anxiously.

"your bike, up!" Rumlow walked quickly over to them. The forensic officer backed away quickly, snatching the evidence bag off the bike. They hadn't even shut the engine off. Rumlow raised the kick stand, hit the throttle and sped off.

Rumlow raced out of the city limits in only a matter of minutes. He sped down the roads like a mad man, his headlight slicing through the dark in front of him. Street lamps and houses whipped past. After a short while he pulled to a screeching stop beside a field. This was the field that the Moth helicopter had been landed in. That meant that the train tracks were... that way. The motorcycle roared into action once more as Rumlow headed onwards. Near the end of the road he was on there was a gap in the fences and trees and train tracks could be seen. He jumped the bike off road and onto the tracks, and tore away north along them.


	9. Chapter 9

_You can either wake up, and take care of this as Rhea, or you can stay unconscious and let me handle things._ Rhea's eyes opened slowly. She felt a little woozy. She was looking out at a narrow, dimly lit room. She seemed to be viewing it through a visor. There was some equipment on one side, but she didn't recognize what it was. There were a few people somewhere in the gloom, talking quietly. The room rattled. Rhea realized the room was swaying gently, the way a subway car would. Was she on a train? That would explain its shape. She made to rub her eyes, but her hand was stuck. She was strapped onto something. Scratch that, she was strapped into something. She was fastened into a tube shaped container. There was a section of thick glass where her head and shoulders were. There were strange things attached to her- monitors probably- and there was an IV in her arm. She jerked her arm desperately, but it was useless. She could feel whatever was in her weakening her.

 _Let me handle it._

You're weak too, I can feel you being suppressed.

 _I'm certainly not at my normal vivacity, and it **will** take a while, but I can still manifest. _

Do it.

"you're awake," came a familiar voice. Rhea let her head fall to one side. She stared at the face of the man from her apartment. "I'm impressed I must say. You should be practically comatose."

He smiled at her.

"you're proving to be more and more extraordinary."

…...

Coulson was quarantining off yet another explosion crime scene. The four men who had been on the truck were dead. He knew they would be, but it was still hard to hear the conformation. He would need to leave this to someone else and get back to Warmenton as soon as possible. His phone rang for the third time. This must be important; he answered it.

"hello," he listened to the frantic message. "yeah, we just found that out," he said grimly. "What? Where. Is anyone in pursuit? I'm on my way."

He hung up his cell and headed towards his grounded chopper.

"Barton," he called. "with me!"

…...

"now that you're conscious though," the man walked over to one of the machines by the wall and started to type something. "I think we'll engage our thermal precautions."

The hairs on Rhea's arms began to stand up as a chill settled into the tube, growing colder by the moment. Then she felt it- a warmth that seemed to come from her heart, settling over her body and into her mind. Steam started to rise off her.

"Where's the neural suppressor?" the man asked one of the other people in the train car. They scurried over to a case and brought something back to him. The man took it and walked towards Rhea.

"I didn't want to have to use something so experimental on you," he was saying. "But you're a lot more trouble than I anticipated."

Faint wisps, like the thin flame of a dying match, were beginning to dance around Rhea. The top of the tube opened up and the man's hand came down. It was holding something mechanical in it. Rhea leaned away as best she could. The man slammed the small device onto her temple. There was an odd jolting sensation, like the ground had fallen away, and then all there was was blackness.

The man shut the container again and stepped away.

"let's see if that can contain you."

…...

Rumlow urged the bike to go faster, though he had reached the maximum speed about thirty minutes ago. He could hear the train somewhere up ahead. He leaned low over the handle bars. He rounded a wide turn and there it was, a few hundred yard ahead. He pulled out his gun and readied it. As he drew closer, bullets started firing at him. He ducked as low as he could and swerved. He jumped the bike over the train line so he was next to the track, and pulled up next to the back of the caboose. There was a little slot in the side. Rumlow aimed and fired. One of the guns stopped firing at him. He pulled one of his legs up onto the seat of the bike and pushed off. He caught onto to the narrow ladder that was built into the side of the freight car. The motor cycle spun off into the darkness behind him. He pulled himself up onto the roof and walked forward. Bellow he could hear the heavy sound of the side door being slid open. Some one stuck their head out and looked up. Rumlow shot them and swung down into the train car. As he did, his feet made contact with some one's chest. The person staggered back and then dropped as Rumlow sent a bullet between his eyes. Rumlow looked around. There were no other occupants of this car. He grabbed two of the men's assault rifles and strung them across his back. He then walked across the swaying floor and pulled open the door at the front of the car. The door on the back of the car was being pulled open and more armed men were coming towards him. They must have heard the gun fire. Rumlow ducked behind the door way and swung an assault rifle forward. He exchanged fire with the men in the next car. He took out two of them and ran out from behind the doorway and leapt over to the next car. He slammed the butt of his gun into a man's face a few times. He grabbed the assailant by the front of his uniform and threw him out the open door. A bullet hit the side of his arm. He yelled and rolled out the line of fire. He came up swinging and caught the last man on the chin. The man staggered backwards trying to aim his gun at Rumlow, but the SHIELD agent was on top of him. Rumlow knocked the rifle from the man's hand and delivered a few well placed blows to the chest and face. Then he grabbed the man's hair and dragged him towards the train door. He pushed the man over the edge, holding onto him by the back of his clothes.

"Which car is she in!?" he shouted over the rushing wind. The man yelled something Rumlow couldn't quite hear, but he got the gist of it. He dropped the man lower. By the scream that followed it sounded as if the man's hand had hit the track. He pulled the man back up and then slid the victim's legs over the side, holding him so they face each other.

"Tell me which car she's in or I let the tracks smash you up, foot by foot."

"I don't know anything!" the man insisted. His eyes were wide and terrified, and Rumlow saw he was rather young.

"Look!" Rumlow held the man's mangled hand in front of him. "Is it really worth it!? You tell me which train car they're holding that young woman in, and I'll knock you out. No one will ever know you helped me. You've been badly injured after all. Or you can continue playing the loyal henchman and your life ends today."

The young man's eyes darted back and forth uncertainly. Rumlow lowered him a few inches. The tip of the man's boots hit the track. He cried out, raising his legs desperately.

"Last chance kid," Rumlow growled. "My arms are starting to get tired."

"Alright! Alright!" the man yelped. "They're five cars down from us!"

"Now, I would love to believe you," Rumlow said. "but one of your people already lied to us today."

He lowered the man a little more.

"No I swear!" he cried frantically. "I swear! Five cars down! Please!"

Rumlow lifted him back up into the car. The man scrabbled backwards away from the door. Rumlow picked up his gun again and swung at the young man's head, knocking him out cold. He walked back out the door and inched his way around the corner of the car to the ladder and pulled himself up onto the roof. The racing wind whipped at his jacket and tugged at the gun slung over his back. He pushed forward, treading carefully on the rickety footing as he moved from one car to the next. Over the roaring in his ears he heard the grinding sound of metal on metal. Someone was opening one of the freight car doors. Rumlow sped up to the edge of the car and turned around, sinking into a crouch. He steadied the rifle and glared at the darkness. He waited for them to climb the ladder, for a hint that they had reached the top. Then he saw it; the faintest of gleams in the blackness. He aimed and fired. A shadow went flying off the side of the train. Rumlow stood up, turned around and jumped to the next car. He raced on, off the third car and onto the fourth.

…...

The man stepped back from the tube. Jaeger was no longer conscious that was clear, but the weak little flames hadn't disappeared. Instead they seemed to get unstable, going from a burst of something more tangible to almost nonexistent.

"Lower the temperature more!" he ordered.

"yes sir!"

"sir," one of his assistants called over to him. "there's someone on the train. They took out the last few cars and they're heading this way." the assistant put his hand to his ear listening. "They're on the car roofs."

The man sighed, "well I guess I'll be on the roof if you need me. Try and get that under control!" he pointed at the sporadic flames in the tube as he headed for the back door.

…...

Rumlow was almost across the fourth car when someone leapt up in front of him, and punched him right in the mouth. The blow sent him flying backwards. He hit the roof and went sprawling over the edge. He caught the lip of the car roof and edge himself to the ladder, and then around the corner to the doorway. He dropped down, and wiped the blood from his mouth. He could hear heavy footsteps coming his way above him. Rumlow ripped the door open and fired in at the men inside. There were some large crates in this car. When the first few men had fallen, Rumlow ducked into the car and slipped in between two crates. He took out another of the gunmen. There was a loud thump as the rooftop assailant dropped down into the doorway. Rumlow turned and fired in that direction. Someone rolled from the door way to behind one of the crates. Rumlow used this opportunity to leave his cover and run forward, shooting the last gunman as he did. He managed to open the next door before he felt the hand grab the back of his head. He threw his feet up onto the doorway to brace himself as the person behind him tried to slam his head against it. He snatched a knife from his boot and pushed off the wall against the man behind him. He whirled round in the air slicing at the man's arm. The assailant drew back out of range.

"Again!" the man yelled, holding his bleeding forearm. He grinned toothily at Rumlow. "I'm losing my touch. Must be getting old."

"You're the man that was entering the apartment building!" Rumlow realized.

"oh yeah. I came, I saw... I conquered."

The man's leg lashed out suddenly with viper like speed, first at Rumlow's leg, torso, then head. Rumlow just managed to block in time. When the man's leg came for his head, Rumlow blocked with his left and with his right hand he brought the knife down towards the leg. He only snagged a bit of the man's pants, however, as the leg was already retreating. The man used the motion to spin his body and kick out with the other leg at Rumlow's left knee. Rumlow went down, and as he did, brought the knife back into the man's right knee. The man reached down punched Rumlow hard across the face a few times. Rumlow caught the arm and put his feet against the man's middle. In one motion he threw him over his head and returned to a crouching position. Rumlow had thrown the man right through the open doorway. The man's hands hit the train knuckles and he would have pushed off in a perfect backflip onto the next car, but Rumlow had hurled himself after the man. He caught him round the middle as they collided and they slammed into the door of the fifth car. Rumlow fell back onto the security bars, trying to find his footing. The man disentangled himself from the heap he had landed in reached out for the SHIELD agent's throat. He slammed Rumlow against the metal door and kneed him in the gut. Rumlow threw his palm upwards against the man's elbow, then brought his hands up and around the man's arm locking them between Rumlow's own arms and sides. He head butted the man, released his arms and shoved him in the chest. The man fell back of the end of the rocking train. Rumlow spun round and dropped down as the gun he had found himself staring down fired over his head. Some one from inside the car had opened the door and tried to shoot him. Rumlow struck upwards, twisting the gun-free hand behind the newcomer's back and smashing the hand that held the gun onto his rising knee. The person yelled and dropped the gun. The man Rumlow had been fighting had caught onto the metal bars of train car and swung himself back around to safety. Rumlow now stood with his back to the open doorway and the once-armed assailant pinned in front of him. As the man from earlier swung back around he held out his legs to hit Rumlow. They made contact with the arm locked assistant instead, and the assistant and Rumlow fell backwards through the open door into the fifth car.

Rumlow was back on his feet instantly. He looked quickly around the car, and spotted the tube.

"Rhea!" he exclaimed. She appeared to be unconscious, and yet there was fire around her in the tube. It was odd though. If fire boiled, it would look something like this fire did. There were sparks of electricity popping inside the container as well. Rumlow started to run towards the tube, but a heavy kick found his side and sent him hurtling against the right wall of the car. That man stood over him. He cracked his neck then walked over to the left wall and opened the side door of their car. Rumlow gasped as he stood again. The man came back over to him, telling another assistant not to interfere. He grabbed Rumlow and threw him towards the open door. Rumlow landed just inches from the edge. The man marched towards him again, ready to kick him from the speeding train. Rumlow raised himself on his hand and glanced up at Rhea in her container. The man looked as well. The fire spurted, like a dying car engine, and seemed to get sucked into Rhea. Her eyes- surrounded once more by black markings- snapped open, and then fire exploded from her.

Time seemed to slow down to Rumlow here. The explosion obliterated the container Rhea was in. As the wall of blinding heat spread forth from her, some of it seemed to extend towards Rumlow. The force of it pushed him from the train. As he went backwards he could see the rest of the explosion tearing apart the car and blasting the train from its tracks. He hit the ground much softer than he had anticipated and rolled only a few feet. The fire that had pushed from the train blossomed around him, touching the ground so that he was in a sort of firey bubble. He shielded his eyes from the brightness, and notice that though it was hot in this flame bubble, it was nowhere near what it should be. His skin should have been roasting and his hair burned off by the shear proximity of such powerful fire. He just felt slightly singed. He could not look to see what was happening, but there was the deafening roar of on going explosions and the ground shook as many tons of metal began to fall down.

At last the noise began to subside and he felt the fire around him dissipate. He raised his head and glanced wide eyed at the scene that surrounded him. Chunks of train lay scattered everywhere, some still glowing hot and smoldering. It was comparable to what a living room looked like after a dog has torn a couch to shreds. To his left a huge flame still burned. He shielded his eyes, trying to look at it as it shrank. It couldn't be possible, but it seemed to be in the shaped of something; something with four legs. In the heart of it was a small dark figure. As the firey shape grew smaller and fainter he realized it was Rhea. Her feet touched the ground and the last of the flames vanished. She collapsed onto the smoking earth. Rumlow crawled hesitantly over to her. The black marks were gone from her skin, but on her temple was an odd little device of sorts. He reached out, paused, then pushed aside her copper curls and pulled it off. There was a tiny wound where the center of it had been. Rhea moaned and began to stir.

"Rhea?" he asked cautiously. "Can you hear me?" Rhea open one normal, green eye and squinted over at Rumlow. She murmured something.

"What?"

"why so glum, Bunny?" she asked hoarsely. "you get a free smoothie after this."


	10. Chapter 10

The reports he was reading worried Fury just ever so slightly. It wasn't that miss Rhea Jaeger was some super human, or that she was apparently capable of massive and targeted destruction. (In fact Fury was comforted by this last point. He would rather have someone who could control their destructive tendencies rather than another wild card like banner.) No, what worried Fury were the other littler things; the things that most would probably over look. The sedative she had been given, the neural dampener, and that she had been back on her feet in only a couple of hours. He had a feeling there was much more to Rhea than one was given to believe, and this worried him. He liked to be the one keeping the secrets. His visit with her had gone... interestingly. She had agreed to work with SHIELD, and had seemed quite amiable. Then they had parted she had turned to Fury and said, "One more thing."

"yes?" he had asked.

"This isn't a draft. I'm not agreeing to any of this as some sort of final contract on my life. I retain the right to ultimately make my own decisions on the grander scale of thing, and that includes walking away freely from SHIELD should I ever choose to do so."

They had exchanged silent impassive stares for one tense moment. Finally Fury had said, "I don't see any problems with this request. As you say, this is hardly a draft. Besides," they had stood and Fury had opened his office door for her to leave. "Something tells me we couldn't really stop you even if we wanted to."

She had shook his hand, smiled sincerely up at him and said, "You will hopefully never know just how right you are about that," and left. It hadn't been a taunt, or a brag of strength. She had meant it. She had be truly sincere in that wish. That was nagged at his mind. That was why he read the reports, and worried ever so slightly about this Miss Rhea.

…...

"how's the apartment?" Coulson asked Rhea.

"SHIELD housing isn't nearly as bad as I expected. It is odd living in an apartment building full of kick ass trained agents. I think half my floor is gone on missions right now."

They were walking through the lower level of the headquarters buildings. Coulson was escorting Rhea to her first day of training. She was lined up for an intensive non-stop month long program and then she would have her first field outing.

"pretty soon you'll be one of those 'kick ass trained agents'," he said.

"that's hard to believe!" she laughed.

"really? It's hard to believe that the girl with super powers will be a trained field agent doing the sort of missions comic book super heroes do?"

"well when you put it like that, no."

"I'm glad you decided to do this, Rhea."

"Thanks Coulson. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a bad decision."

"well after the brainwashing you won't really care anyways."

Rhea gasped,"I knew you were all just robots!"

"Please. We prefer the term, cybernetic organism."

"no way," Rhea laughed out loud. "terminator reference? That's why you are the greatest person I know. Well, that's really not a big competitive field right now, I know about five people. Your main competition is that agent Rumlow, and the chances of running into him again are pretty small." They turned a corner with a door way labeled GYMN.

"actually agent Rumlow is on suspension for multiple violation of several SHIELD codes due to his action in his attempt to rescue you." Coulson said casually.

"oh..."

"and since he won't be on any missions for a while I got him to agree to be the one to train you, so I think you'll be running into him a lot."

"what!? Coulson!"

Coulson pulled open the door. It opened into a small hallway-like room with a desk in it front and center. The man checking in with the desk turned around when the door opened. Rhea found herself face to face with Rumlow. Her stomach flopped down to somewhere around her ankles, and the tiniest of flickers flash over her skin.

"Ah," said Coulson. "excellent. You two can get started right away. Rumlow." he nodded to the Agent.

"Coulson," Rumlow returned the nod. Coulson wished Rhea well and turned and left. Rhea found herself wishing she was the one walking back down that hallway.

"Good to see you again Rhea," Rumlow said. "hope you're feeling well, we have a lot to do. Check in here and then head right through the door way there that says women. We'll meet in sparing room."

"Yes sir." Rhea turned and started to walk towards the sign.

"Rhea," Rumlow cleared his throat. "You forgot about signing in."

"haha oh right, of course."

"name" asked the man at the computer. Rumlow headed for the men's locker room.

"Jaeger, Rhea."

"Jaeger, Rhea C. checking in at 10:30am. Alright your good to go."

She walked quickly from the desk to the locker room, furiously willing the blush to dissipate. She placed her bag in a locker and pulled back her main of copper curls. Why was she so flustered about this? Well for starters she had expected to be trained by someone a little more female. It had probably been a baseless expectation but she had still expected it and now she was going to be training with Rumlow. Who was a man. And incredibly good looking. And a bit of bad boy. And right now she was feeling incredibly out of shape. This wasn't going to be like in the movies where your hair stays perfect and the light sweat on your skin made you look sexy. No, her hair was going to be a mess, she'd be all red in the face, and her clothes would be soaked by the time she was through. She filed nervously from the locker room down a narrow corridor and through the door labeled "sparring". Rumlow was waiting for her by a punching bag.

"We're gonna start with drilling you on the basics," he started right away. "first, we're going to work on punching. First we'll drill you on jabs and undercuts."

They moved through the basics punching, drilling for an hour or more. Rumlow occasionally stepped in and corrected Rhea's form. After that they drilled for another hour on blocking punches, and then they worked on putting what she had learned to practice. They moved onto kicks and worked on those for several more hours. Then Rumlow asked her to hit him.

"What?"

"Not in my face of course," he said. "I'm going to hold my hand up, and I want to hit it as hard and as fast as you can."

"you sure?" she asked uncertainly.

"I'll be fine," he smirked, and held up in his hand, bracing himself.

"okay," she said a little uncertainly. She struck at the target. Rumlow yelled and rubbed his palm.

"Yeah good," he hissed. "You're fast! That stung. But there's not a lot of force behind it. Go eat lunch, we'll hit the gymn after the hour."

"oh thank god I'm starving." she sagged and made for the locker rooms.

"By the way remind me," Rumlow called after her. "To go over a nutrition plan with you at the end of today." Rhea whipped around and gave him an aghast look.

"'Nutrition plan'?" she said. "You monster!"


	11. Chapter 11

"come on, Jaeger! Hold on!"

"I can't, my hands are slipping!"

"Don't you even think about letting go!"

"My arms..."

"You drop now and it's thirty more crunches."

"NOOOO!"

The few other people who were using the gym were looking over at Rhea and Rumlow in bemused affrontedness. On the one hand it was like watching an entertaining TV show while you excercised. On the other hand, you weren't supposed to be so loud in the gym.

"Aaaaand drop."

Rhea's grip on the pull up bar released and she dropped to the floor a couple feet bellow. Collapsing like a rag doll onto her back.

"alright," said Rumlow. "Let's stretch out those arms."

"Can't." she panted. "If I move them they'll break." Rumlow rolled his eyes. She groaned as she got to her feet and began her stretches. Suddenly Rumlow kicked out at her. Startled, Rhea burst into flames. The few other people exercising jumped to their feet in alarm. The fire disappeared and the black color faded quickly from Rhea's skin. Rumlow stamped out the singed mat they stood on.

"Your reflexes still aren't anywhere what they should be." he said. "If someone comes at you to attack, I want your super powers to be your secondary response. Your first response should always be to counter. Come on, back to the sparing room."

"Ummm," Rhea looked over her shoulder at the gymn as they left. People were drawing nearer to each other in a crowd. "what about the fact that I just combusted in front of those people?"

"I have no idea," Rumlow told her. "Honestly I wasn't really expecting that to be your response."

"I was really expecting you to attack me."

"that was the point."

After a quick phone call to Coulson, Rumlow informed Rhea that someone would be down to talk to the other SHIELD members who had been in the gym. They spent the rest of the day drilling the basic strikes and blocks, and how to counter attack as she blocked. By the end of the day Rhea was dead tired. She picked up her towel and headed down the hallway to the locker room. She rinsed off in the shower and got changed. When she entered the gym lobby, Rumlow was waiting for her. He handed her a thin folder.

"Diet plan." he said.

"you're a cruel man."

"Relax," he said. "It's not that bad. When you're working out this intensely you don't wanna eat just anything. You could make yourself sick."

They checked out with the front desk and headed out into the hallway. Not many people came down to this area of the SHIELD building at eight PM and the halls were deserted. They walked in silence for a little bit. Finally Rhea broke it.

"I'm sorry about you being on suspension." she said. Rumlow didn't answer.

"Thank you, by the way," she added. "for coming after me like that."

"part of the job." he said.

"It was stupid," Rhea continued. "you're lucky your injuries weren't that severe or that you, ya know, died. But thanks."

Rumlow stopped walking and faced her. He opened his mouth to say something, but hesitated. Rhea felt an emotion she couldn't quite place. Rumlow shrugged and said "Yeah, well..." and they kept walking. This time Rumlow kept the silence at bay by talking about how today went and giving Rhea a pointer or two. They were rode the elevator up to the ground level and headed out onto the street.

"From what I hear," Rhea said. "you're a pretty bad ass fighter. One of the best, in fact."

"I can hold my own with some of the best, yeah. If you wanna see some really impressive fighting though, you need to see people like Natasha Romanov in action."

"Who's that? She sounds awesome."

"she's one of SHIELD's top agents. She doesn't have a team, she just gets assigned to what ever mission needs her. Sometimes that means she works alongside a strike team, sometimes she goes in solo."

"Wow."

"My team did a mission in Belarus with her one time. There was some classified stuff happening there but I ended up fighting this guy, had to be eight feet tall and just massive. It was like fighting a tank that was on PCP. He takes out the three other guys I got with me. I'm getting the shit beat out of me, and I'm using everything; knives, guns, tasers- nothing will bring this guy down no matter how much damage it inflicts. Then Romanov comes out of nowhere and takes on this Goliath. She's moving like a cobra, dancing all over, twirling around him. Finally she gets the perfect shot in and she sends that monster back to hell. She walks up to me, and I'm standing there covered in blood, one of my arms bending the wrong way, and she says, 'Hey. What took you so long?'" He laughed at the memory.

"Oh I was so mad. And in so much pain."

Rhea stared opened mouthed up at Rumlow. He looked over at her expression of awe and horror.

"What?" he shifted the weight of his gym bag.

"Nothing." Rhea looked forward. "I just hope SHIELD has really great health care, and a truly inspiring vacation policy."

They arrived a few minutes later at the SHIELD own apartments. Rumlow reminder her of a few tips to combat sore muscles and said goodbye. Rhea watched him go for a moment before she entered her building. Once her apartment she stripped down and took a real shower. It hadn't gone that badly, she thought. She had been red and sweaty and weak, yes, but she had been too focused on the intense work out to notice, really. The only truly terrible moment had been when she'd combusted in front of all those people. Poor Coulson. She was probably causing him so much extra work. She couldn't help but feel that Coulson had chosen Rumlow as her trainer for more than just his skill. Coulson, that sneaky robot. Well let him have his games, she decided as she got into bed. True, Agent Rumlow was rugged and sexy, and his job gave him that bad boy air, but honestly, no. How would that happen? She just had too much going on to even think about getting involved with someone. And if she did get involved with someone would she really want them to be an agent of SHIELD, always off on dangerous missions? Besides she didn't actually like him. And besides that he probably didn't even like her. She probably wasn't his type. He was probably into more of a feme fatale type of woman. The strong sexy silent type, like that Natalia Romani or whatever. As she lay in bed, trying to clear her mind for sleep, Rhea wondered how horrible her hair had looked during training.


	12. Chapter 12

The next week passed slowly. Every day was constant drilling, but Rhea was proud of the progress being made, and she already felt much stronger. She ignored the diet plan for the most part, though Rumlow was suspicious, there was no evidence for him to prove it. Rhea had grown to really enjoy their time together, even if was spent performing grueling work out routines. She was feeling rather sad about when the month ended. Coulson stopped by towards the end of one of their sessions.

"How's the fire situation going?" He asked her quietly.

"You mean can I control my ability to explode? Yeah mostly. It's really just when I'm caught off guard or there's really strong emotions."

"Hey," rumlow was at her side. One of his hands was on her back the other held his water bottle. "I'm a refill while you two talk. You want me to fill yours too?"

"Yes thanks. It's by my towel."

Rumlow walked away. Coulson waited till he was out of ear shot before speaking.

"Your hands are on fire."

"Wha- oh!" the little flames disappeared from Rhea's hands. "it's probably all the adrenaline from working out."

"mm, probably."

"anyways," rhea went on, ignoring Coulson's tone. "it's the electricity that I can't control. I mean I really can't control it, like I have a hard time even using it. Why are you asking? Did you find me a super human to train me in my super powers?"

"yes."

"wait really?"

"well, they're not a superhuman. They'll be working with you to learn how to master your abilities through meditation and other such methods. You'll start training with them next week on Monday and Thursday mornings. Your time training with Rumlow will be pushed back an hour and your sessions with Miss Crawly will start at seven A.M. I'll text you the rest of the details." he said. Rumlow was heading to them back from the bubbler.

"Now I'd better let you get back to your... adrenaline fueled workout." Coulson flashed his eyebrows up and down.

"I can't stand you."

"Don't lie. I know I'm your favorite." Coulson put on his sunglasses as he spoke and then turned and left.

"only a tool wears sunglasses indoors," Rhea called after him. Rumlow was by her side again and handed her her waterbottle, now filled.

"What'd he have to say?" he asked.

"Apparently I'm going to start training with someone else in the mornings to help control my powers."

"Oh yeah, he mentioned they were looking for someone. When does that start?"

"next week."

"good to know. Alright Jaeger, lets get back to training."

"I don't know. What do you say we just call it a day?" she looked at his expression. "so are we sparing or are we gonna hit the gymn?" she asked.

…...

The following Monday Rhea left her apartment early. Instead of heading for SHIELD HQ however, she was heading for a much smaller building on the outskirts of what she called "the SHIELD compound". This building was a counseling center and Rhea noticed it was fairly separate from the rest of the compound. There seemed to be hardly any one there at seven in the morning. A good choice to poke around inside an explosive, she thought to herself.

Miss Crawley was waiting for her outside her office. She was a middle age woman with a shaved haircut. She dressed very respectably but with just a hint of bohemian here and there.

"You must be Rhea Jaeger," she embraced her. "Welcome, let's go in and get started."

Crawley's office was large and comfortable looking, with a squishing welcoming couch and bright pillows. There was an oak desk in the corner but facing the couch was a soft arm chair. Crawley sat in this and gestured for Rhea to take the couch.

"So how have you been dealing with everything?" Crawley asked. "I mean a lot of frightening things have happened to you in the last month, and possibly over the last fifteen years."

"It's been fine," Rhea smiled. "it was a little disorienting coming back but I adjusted pretty quickly."

"Coulson says that you refuse to talk about what you were 'coming back' from. As far as he knows you haven't told anyone. But maybe, is there someone that you've come to trust, that you have been able to talk about it with?"

"I'm sorry," Rhea eyed Crawley suspiciously. "I thought this was supposed to be about training with my abilities, not a therapy session."

"It is. But I think therapy is going to be a large part of that. You should have received a copy of my session plan for you."

"I didn't-" Rhea gasped. She narrowed her eyes. "Coulson!" she hissed. "So, what else has Agent Coulson been telling you?"

"he mentioned that you have not reached out to anyone from before your disappearance. He's worried about that and I have to agree with him. Why wouldn't you want to connect with your old friends, or family? Why wouldn't you want to let them know you're alive and well?"

"can you imagine that conversation? Hey everyone, I'm back. Yeah I haven't age and I have super powers but don't worry about that. Now goodbye forever."

"why would it be goodbye?"

"why? Because they've all got lives of their own that I don't fit into anymore, and they couldn't really fit into mine."

"You don't want them in your life anymore, you mean."

"that's not it."

"you barely let someone like Coulson get close to you. Even he says there's a wall."

"These people are like my coworkers now, except that I'm their job. It's just business, you don't get touchy-feely with business."

"Coulson genuinely cares about you. He's cared about what happened to you for fifteen years. Now he cares about what happens to now."

"I know. And I love him for it but-"

"he wants to see you make new connections if you won't reach out to old ones."

"Why!?" Rhea choked. "Why does it matter if I make connections? Maybe I don't want to be connected!"

"Rhea that's a basic human need. Why wouldn't you want to connect to people?"

"Because I can't!" tears started coming down Rhea's cheeks. "I can't! I didn't even get to deal with-" she stopped talking and just let herself cry into her hands. Crawley came and sat down beside her. She put her hands on Rhea's shaking shoulders.

"what didn't you get to deal with Rhea? What happened to you?" she pleaded quietly. Rhea shook her head.

"I can't," she sobbed.

"Rhea you need to deal with whatever it is you're holding onto. If you don't, I don't think you'll ever be able to control these powers you have. You'll just go on with your silent suffering. And you don't need to. Let me help you."

Rhea wiped her eyes, and her crying subsided. She looked ahead of her with a lost expression. Finally she turned to Crawley.

"I know." she said. "the truth is, I know what's holding me back, and I know what I need to do. It's just that, what I need to face is so painful. It's made worse by the fact that I was ripped away from where I was, from who I was, to return here before anything was finished where I was. It's painful to talk about, but I think more than that, I don't know how to talk about it because most people just can't understand it."

"Well, you need to try Rhea. You need to try and talk about it. You need to heal, and you need to reach out to the people around you to help you do that."

They sat in silence for a moment.

"if you don't want to do this with me," Crawley said. "we can focus solely on meditating and getting you in touch with the part of you that controls your powers. But if that's the case then you have to promise me you will find at least one person you want to bond with to talk to about what you went through. Alright?"

"Alright," Rhea agreed.

"so find someone who can trust and connect with, who can be a close friend to you and help you through this. Someone from before or someone new, either way."

"Some one I know I can trust..." Rumlow's face drifted into Rhea's thoughts. She replaced it with Coulson's.

"and if you decide that that person is Agent Coulson," continued Crawley. "then I want you to choose two people. You need to expand your circle."

Rumlow drifted back to Rhea's mind.

"Agreed." she said, somewhat reluctantly.


	13. Chapter 13

"So how'd your first session with that Ms. Crawley go?" Rumlow asked Rhea as she entered the sparing room.

"well, we didn't end up doing much work with the whole controlling-my-powers thing," she said, setting down her bag. "'Cause, surprise, it turns out it's also supposed to be a therapy session. Apparently Coulson thinks I'm hiding crippling emotional baggage. Pfft! Right! Me? I ask you?"

"Really? I would have thought that's the sort of thing Coulson would talk to you about directly, rather than surprising you with it."

"Nah, he knew I wouldn't want anything to do with that sort of thing."

"you are still going to attend the sessions though, right?" Rumlow rested his hands on either side of a punching bag and leaned against it.

"Yeah, well Crawley said that we would stick solely to working with my abilities, but only if I find someone that I can trust and confide in." she shrugged, pushing some of her curls out of her face, not looking at Rumlow. There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Ya know," Rumlow aimed a few soft punches at the bag. "you could always ta-"

He was interrupted by a cry of pain from behind them. Two people had been sparring in the ring, and one was now on the ground holding their leg. Rumlow and Rhea hurried over. The man on the ground hissed through his teeth as the woman he had been sparring with apologized.

"I think I may have torn the ligaments in his knee!" she panicked as Rumlow knelt down beside the man.

"Rhea, I need you to go to the office that's in the gym area and tell them what's happened."

Rhea nodded and ran out of the sparring room to gym. There was a windowed room set in the far wall of the gym with the words "EMERGENCY" posted over it. Rhea ran in and told the handful of people hanging around in it what had happened. Four of them came hurrying out past her, carrying a stretcher. Rhea followed them back to where Rumlow and the two strangers were. The emergency crew inspected the fallen man, confirmed there was severe damage to his knee, and loaded him onto the stretcher. They carried him out followed by the woman, who was looking somewhat ashamed.

"Are they taking him to the hospital?" asked Rhea.

"no they'll take him to the medical center here, first."

"oh yeah, I remember that place."

"And that," Rumlow turned to her. "Is why it is important to know proper maneuvers. He would have been fine if he blocked properly. So. Let's get practicing so that that sort of thing doesn't happen to you."

Rhea couldn't help feeling a little frustrated as they began the day's training. She really wanted to know what it was Rumlow had been about to say before that fool had interrupted them. And yet, at the same time, she didn't. She didn't want an invitation to get to know him; or for him to get to know her. The conflicted feelings only added to her frustration. It certainly didn't help when Rumlow commented on her distractedness, instructing her stay focused. She noticed he seemed to be getting a little frustrated himself, and silently reprimanded herself. When their time was finally up she did not walk back to the apartment complex with Rumlow as she usually did. Instead she told him she was going to be a while and not to wait for her. She wanted to be alone. She needed to think. She walked back to her apartment in a world of her own.

The morning session with Crawley had hit on some deep issues. Her experiences had been so deeply personal, and were still so fresh, she did not want to confide them to anyone. However she knew she needed to face them, and she wasn't sure she would do it on her own. But the people around her, they were good people, she liked them, but they weren't the kind of people she wanted to tell these things to. The people she wanted to talk to weren't here, and had probably left this plane of existence hundreds of millenniums ago. The only people who truly knew her, who knew who and what she was, who had shared her experiences, those people were gone. She hadn't even got to say farewell to many of them, she hadn't been there for them in the end. And now these people here wanted her to explain these things, and how could she? Who were they that she should tell them of these things that they could never comprehend? And who was she now? Was she Rhea or was she the Fox? Could she ever be the Fox again? She knew the power she held, and she did not think this world should see it. People so often think that when given great power, the responsible thing to do is to use it to uphold what you believe in. Rhea wondered if they could understand that true responsibility sometimes meant _not_ using your powers because you _could_ uphold what you believe in; because you could "fix" _everything._ She needed to be careful. She had already noticed how the people around seemed to reflect her emotions. That would need to be the first thing she worked on. After she prepared herself for bed, Rhea lit a candle and an incense stick, and began to meditate. The candle burned late into the night.

…...

Rhea had said not to wait up but Rumlow stalled getting dressed in the locker room anyways. He took his time as he exited and signed out, and even out rightly waited for a minute outside the doors before he gave in and left. Something had gone wrong today. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it had been, but something _had_ gone wrong. He had been annoyed that he had been interrupted by that idiot with the busted knee, that was part of it. He had wanted to suggest Rhea talk to him, which was stupid really. He was acting like some kid! But he had wanted to say it, and then they'd been interrupted and then he hadn't known had to bring it up again. Then as they had sparred his mood had inexplicably gotten worse and he was sure Rhea had picked up on it. She had probably _wanted_ to walk back without him. She was probably feeling uncomfortable because of his mood. Or maybe she was uncomfortable because she had known what he was going to say and that kind of invitation made her feel awkward. After all she probably only thought of him in professional terms. Oh god! Why was he acting so stupid about all of this!? If he did like her he should just say, 'hey, I was thinking of grabbing a drink tonight, wanna come?' And then she could casually decline because her type was probably an old school, all-american farmboy-looking guy, with a big and sincere enough heart that you wouldn't notice if he didn't really have a brain to match it.

Rumlow was at his apartment now.

She was so... she was so... light. When they were together, he was almost always smirking, at the very least. He felt that he could forget about things when he was around her. And it made him hate himself when he was alone. When he was alone he remembered who he was and what he was, and he wasn't someone who could be with a girl like her. He shouldn't even want to be with her. He probably didn't want to be with her. He was probably just a little lonely. His profession wasn't a social one, after all. Besides he was only as concerned about her as he would be for any other mission.

He lay in bed and stared up at his water stained ceiling. His fascination with Jaeger was purely a subjective one. Any one would be curious about her. She was like an iceberg, you only got see ten percent of her. (Even less than that when you took into account that what you were seeing was only an outer layer and who knew what the inside looked like.) Any one would want to know about that other ninety percent. (Or ninety-nine, if you took his "only the outer layer" point into account.)

At around 12:30 AM, Rumlow decided that the water stain looked more like a quinjet than an eagle.


	14. Chapter 14

The next week seemed to drag on. Rumlow and Rhea did not end up walking home together again after that last night. There was a tension between Rumlow and Rhea that they were ignoring. Instead they chuckled and trained like before, both refusing to acknowledge any of the awkwardness they felt. Both secretly schemed of some way to ease the strain that had arisen so suddenly between them, but when Rhea's next session with Crawley came around, she still hadn't talked to Rumlow. She didn't tell Crawley this, of course. Instead she told Crawley that there was someone she was talking to, but that she hadn't fully opened up to yet because she feared overburdening them. It wasn't a lie, because she gave absolutely no background information that could prove it to be so. Then, on Friday, things finally changed.

When Rhea came out of the locker room Friday morning, Rumlow was standing in the far corner taking a call. Rhea watched him out of the corner of her eye as she stretched. He wasn't saying much; mostly he nodded as he paced a little. He finished the call and came over to her, his jaw set.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Not bad news, I hope."

"Today we're going to move onto fighting with weapons," he said, ignoring her question. He motioned to a woman who had been waiting by the wall, and she came towards them.

"We're going to need a third party for the demonstrations on this. This is Agent Androse."

They started with knives. Rumlow and the woman demonstrated how to counter an attack with a blade, then they began drilling Rhea on the maneuvers. It wasn't terribly different from what they had done before. It was rather like all the other hand-to-hand combat except that you really couldn't let the other person touch you. Rhea tried to stay focused on the exercise at hand but she kept worrying about Rumlow. His attitude was still unusually grave, and she kept looking up to see him staring at her, but as if he was looking beyond her. He stood, arms folded, with one of his fists by his mouth, and his brow furrowed, watching Rhea and Androse spar.

"I think we should move onto a real knife," Androse said. Rhea had gotten the hang of even some of the harder blocks.

"I don't know think that's the good idea yet," said Rumlow.

"Come on," Androse looked at him incredulously. "That's standard training procedure. You want to train with a real knife, you don't want the first time you face off against one to be in the field."

"Yeah and I've got the moves down," added Rhea. She was slightly taken aback by Rumlow's sudden shyness of testing her. This was the man who surprise attacked her on her very first day of training. He was always pushing the limits in their sparing.

"Yeah she'll be fine," Androse pulled a real knife from her bag. "You can't mama her if you want to actually train her to fight well." she said to Rumlow.

"I don't mama her," he said darkly. "I just think it might be a good idea for her to learn a couple more maneuvers before we pull out the real blades."

"Now fighting with a real knife is just like fighting with the practice one,"Androse explained to Rhea. "you just have to be a little more careful, 'cause if you accidentally brush against this one while trying to block, you will get hurt. Ready?"

"Ready."

Androse attacked. Rumlow took a step forward, but Rhea dodged and blocked her advances just fine.

"See? I can handle-" she had turned to speak to Rumlow right as Androse had started her next assault. Androse had expected Rhea to be ready and the first to swings of the knife were already in progress when she realized she needed to pull back. Rhea barley managed to block the first stroke, but she did so clumsily and was unable to dodge the second one. The knife ripped through her shirt along her ribs. Androse was pulling back before Rhea's hand could even get to her side. Androse stepped back quickly, hands up.

"Rhea!" Rumlow ran forward and grabbed her. "how bad is it?" he pulled her hand away to look. He stared, shocked, at the rip in her shirt. There was not even a hint of a scratch underneath it.

"Thank god," said Androse. "It felt like I got you good, there."

"it looked like she got you good. You reacted like she did, too." Rumlow had the faintest look of suspicion in his eyes.

"No it just got my shirt," Rhea lied. "I panicked too, though."

"I told you she wasn't ready to train with a real knife," he shot at Androse.

"I'm sorry," she said. "we'll use the fake one for the rest of the day."

And so they did. Rumlow's mood only seemed to grow cloudier with the almost accident. Rhea knew she had promised herself she would be careful with how she effected people's emotions but she wanted to know what was up with her trainer. At lunch, when she could focus on something other than being attacked, she opened her heart and let in some of his feelings. There was anger and frustration but they were merely byproducts of an underlying emotion. She munched on her sandwich, sifting through the feelings to source of the trouble. She reached a powerful feeling of worry, she started tapping her toe from the anxiety of it. She was almost there now. She pushed aside the worry, and found what she was looking for. Little nuggets of fear trying to hide themselves under the other emotions. One in particular stood out to her. She let the sense of fear flow through her, in and back out. Rumlow was just a little bit afraid of something. What could worry _him_? She could have looked at the emotions a little closer and seen what they were directed at, but that would be too much an invasion of privacy. It would be like reading someone's mind without permission. Instead Rhea waited until they had finished training for the day. They ended a little earlier than usual, another clue that something was troubling Rumlow. Lately she had started taking her time in the locker room t give Rumlow plenty of time to be out before her. Today she barely rinsed off, and flew through getting dressed. She finally had an opportunity to fix whatever had broken between them and she was not going to miss it. She ran through the locker room, slowly immediately to a walk as she reach the entrance to the lobby. She checked out at the front desk and exited the lobby. Rumlow was only a little ways ahead of her down the hallway.

"Hey, you with the face!" she called after him. He turned to look behind him and stopped walking. There was (Rhea felt the air) relief. She smiled and hurried towards him. "wait up."

"that was fast," he said.

"Yeah, well, I have to look all nice tonight anyways so I'd rather shower at home," she said as they walked.

"What do you need to look nice for?"

"Coulson's going to be leaving in a couple days for some assignment. He's going to gone for like a week, so we're going out tonight."

"You two are really close." there was an odd tone to his voice when he said it, a sadness almost.

"yeah he's been... well kind of like a father to me, really," Rhea thought about it for a moment. "Except I don't think most father figures are normally as scheming as I suspect he is."

"scheming? Coulson?"

"yeah if he was in a romcom, he'd be the clever older person who seems all naive and innocent, but is secretly masterminding the whole affair."

"you, know I think I can see that," Rumlow laughed.

They managed to make it all the way to their street before the conversation died. Rumlow had been slowly getting quieter, until finally falling silent. When they reached Rhea's complex Rumlow started to say goodbye, but Rhea cut him off.

"please tell me what's wrong," she said.

"What?" Rumlow was a little taken aback. "there's nothing wr-"

"And don't lie. Something's been bothering you all day. I can tell you're worried about something and that worries me." she gently put her fingers around his wrist. "please, tell me."

He looked into the green, earnest eyes of the woman in front of him and sighed.

"SHIELD facial recognition finally got a match. Bryan Loomison," he said. "is the man who tried to abduct you-"

"actually he succeeded in the abduction, it was the other stuff he had planned that failed, but go on,"

"We have confirmation he is still alive and well. We picked up footage of him in relation to an incident in California last night. Coulson called me to tell me about it this morning."

Rhea was quiet for a moment.

"I can see why that would worry you a little bit," she said. "but you were worried a lot. There's something else, isn't there?"

"that's all I can tell you."

"you don't think they'll try and come after me again, do you?"

"after what you did to them last time? I highly doubt you're worth the risk. Besides, how are they going to get to you when you're living in SHIELD head quarters?"

"True. True."

"You don't need to worry about it," he said.

"It's hard for me to believe that when you yourself are so clearly worried."

"Right now, it's my job to worry about you. You're job is to focus on you're training and you can't do that if you're worrying about phantom trouble. So go out with Coulson tonight, forget about my paranoia, and don't stay so late that you're going to be tired tomorrow during practice."

"I promise nothing."

"goodnight Rhea." he smiled and started walking towards his building.

"'night Rumlow," she said.

She hurried up to her apartment where she showered and then quickly looked through her clothes for something to wear. There wasn't much to choose from. All the clothes she had bought when she first came back had been toasted in the apartment explosion. Most of the clothes she had now were for exercise, since that's all she did these days. There were a couple of nice items however and she finally settled on an emerald sundress and her only pair of heels. She also owned a pair of flats which she would be wearing first. She had to go back to the SHIELD building to meet Coulson and then they would be heading to where ever Coulson had planned and she wasn't doing that in heels. It was eight-thirty when she was heading up the corridor to Coulson's office. His office was located just around the corner at the end of the hall. As she approached, Rhea heard voices. One was Coulson, the other she didn't recognize. The stranger's voice said her name. Rhea crept to the bend in the hall on padded feet, and listen hard to conversation.

"We were hoping that would be the case," Coulson was saying. "But we intercepted Moth chattered that says just the opposite. Rhea's display of power during her abduction has only convinced Loomison that she is a prime target."

"but what can he hope to gain from capturing her?" the stranger asked. "she withstood incredibly potent sedatives and neurotoxins, and that neural inhibitor only unleashed her full power against them."

"he seems to believe they could harness her abilities. We still don't know what their next big move will be but he thinks she will be key in helping them to complete it."

"what a nut job."

Rhea walked silent away and then walked back towards the voices, this time making sure her footsteps sounded on the floor. When she walked around the corner she saw Coulson standing outside his door, shaking hands with a pleasant looking man in odd clothing. His attire was all dark colors, mostly black, and looked to be made of a tough material like leather. His arms were bare from the shoulders down, except for an arm guard on the right arm, and a finger tab on the left. 'All their incredible technology and they have an agent who uses arrows?' Rhea wondered.

"I'll see you and Romanov tomorrow," Coulson said. The stranger nodded politely to Rhea as he passed.

"Ready?" Rhea asked.

"always," said Coulson.

"So who was that?" she asked as they walked.

"that was Agent Barton, I suppose the two of you didn't get a chance to meet last time."

"Last time?"

"he assisted us when you were abducted."

"He looks like he uses arrows. He doesn't actually use arrows does he?"

"Yes he does."

"whaaaaaat. What happens when he runs out?"

They discussed value and problems that came from using bows and arrows as Coulson lead her through unfamiliar sections of the building.

"Where are we?" she asked. They were nearing a door with an exit sign over it.

"I thought it would be nice to take my car," he said pushing open the door. It opened onto a tiny parking garage. Rhea didn't know too much about cars, but she did know a really expensive one when she saw it, and she was seeing them now. The cars parked in this little garage all dripped money from their exhaust pipe.

"What is this, VIP for cars?"

"No it's the parking garage for the higher ranking Agents. We just happen to tend to like really nice cars. Not all of though, see." he pointed at a few of the cars. There were a couple of regular cars skulking amongst the fancy ones. These were the kind of cars you bought because they were reliable and functional, and not because you cared what about what a car looked like. Coulson lead Rhea down one of the rows to a retro looking cherry red convertible.

"This is Lola." he said proudly.

"I don't normally say this," Rhea's eyebrows were raised in admiration. "But that is a beautiful car. More importantly, you named your car Lola?"

"actually my father did. Why? What's wrong with Lola?"

"I just always thought of cars as being masculine. I probably would have named it Royceston."

"Royceston?" he asked incredulously.

"what? I like that name."

Coulson chuckled and opened her door for her. He got in on the drivers side and started Lola.

"that is a smooth engine," said Rhea.

"She may not be new," Coulson put on his sunglasses. "but you can be damn sure she's improved."

"see that was cool!" said Rhea. "that's the perfect sunglasses moment!"


	15. Chapter 15

Dinner with Coulson was pleasant. They went to a rather posh Korean restaurant. Coulson found it amusing that Rhea, who could cause explosions and control fire, could not handle spicy foods. They talked about Rhea's training and Coulson asked a few questions about Rumlow that pointed to Coulson being a secret busybody. Coulson dropped her infront of her apartment a little before eleven.

"Coulson," Rhea said as he unbuckled his seat belt. "I just wanted to say thank you, for everything. You've been a fantastic friend to me and so incredibly supportive. You mean a lot to me. I would do anything for you."

"You're welcome." he said. "Are you dying?"

"no!" Rhea laughed. "It's just been on my mind that there are somethings that we need to say, that we never do until it's too late."

"Do you know something I don't? Are you planning something that would make it 'too late'?"

"oh forget it," she chuckled exasperated. She opened her own door and stepped out, and carefully close the car door. "oh and thanks for introducing me to Royceston."

"Lola."

"Tomato, potato."

"Would you go in already."

"Bye."

"good Night."

Once in her apartment Rhea locked the door and got to work. She had not thought about that over heard conversation while she was at dinner with Coulson. She had wanted there to be one really good moment before things got messy. Now, it was time to think about it. That creep Bryan Loomison was still after her, and it sounded as though he wanted her more now than he did before. If he thought she could be a crucial part of some master plan, she wondered how far he'd be willing to go to get to her. "Nut job" that agent Barton had said, and he was right. Rhea had felt it in the first moment of encountering Loomison. There was something cracked about his mind. She wasn't so sure that the fact she was in the middle of SHIELD head quarters _would_ dissuade him, and she felt Coulson probably wasn't sure either. So if SHIELD believed he was likely to attack them in some way, then logically SHIELD would strike first. Coulson was leaving on a mission very early on Monday morning and he was meeting two of SHIELD's top agents tomorrow; Agent Barton and that Agent Romanov Rumlow had told her about. If Rhea had been a gambling man she would have bet a decent sum that the three of them were meeting to discuss a strike operation on the Moth base Loomison was located at. It was therefore probable that the location of such a base would be stored somewhere in Coulson's computer. She had two possible options. The first, she could drop one of her earbuds in Coulson's office before his meeting, and then listen with the other to learn the whereabouts of the base. The second, she come in after the meeting when Coulson is on his way out and ask if she can borrow his computer saying that her phone is broken, and she has an important email to send. Maybe she could even do both. Maybe she could come up with some excuse to see him in the morning, leave the earbud and "forget" her phone in his office, and then come by a while later to look for it. Either way, once she knew where the base was, she could book a one way flight at around midnight, and get there before anyone even knew she was gone.

Rhea went into her bedroom. She sat on the floor facing her doorknob. She focused her mind and felt the power inside her. She let it build and flow through her, concentrating on her fingertips. She stretched out her hands. Tiny electrical sparks began to pop, and then a zapping noise as a tiny bolt flew from her fingers to the metal knob. It was a good start, but she still had a ways to go. There would be little time for sleep tonight.

…...

At eight AM Rhea left her apartment and headed for the SHIELD building. She knew Coulson didn't like to do most of his paper and office work first, and leave the important things for later. That meant that she should have until ten before his meeting with Romanov and Barton. On her way up to his office, she pulled off into a bathroom and called Rumlow.

"Hello? Rumlow?" she said weakly.

"Rhea," he answered. "where are you?"

"I'm not feeling very good today," she whimpered. "I think I came down with something last night."

"Is it bad?"

"I threw up once already."

"alright, well, we're a little ahead of schedule anyways so it's all right. Rest up."

"Thanks."

She hung up and continued to Coulson's office. The door was slightly a jar when she got there.

"Knock, knock," she said as she entered.

"Hello," Coulson looked up confused. "why aren't you in training?"

"Rumlow was feeling a little ill so he gave me the day off. We're a little ahead of the training schedule anyways."

"Sounds like a somewhat liberal decision on his part. So what can I help you with?"

"Not much. I just really don't know what to do with myself." Rhea turned and walked around behind the sofa to look at the shelves that lined the office walls. "I mean, my whole life here has compromised of nothing but training. I haven't developed any sort of social life. What is 'free time'?"

Coulson smiled a little.

"I suppose you have a point there," he said. "maybe it's a good thing you had today off. I think it's important for you to experience normality from time to time. You should go shopping. I believe that's what the majority of normal women like to do on a day off."

"I used to paint," Rhea turned back to Coulson. "I was an artist before I disappeared."

"I remember."

"You knew?"

"I learned a lot about you after you went missing." Coulson looked at Rhea. His voice quietened as he said, "the more I learned, the harder it was to not have any news for the people you left behind." There was a moment where neither of them said anything. Then Rhea turned to the items displayed on the shelves. Her eye caught onto one of the items and she asked quickly.

"What's with the trading cards? I don't recognize this character."

"that's no character," Coulson's eyes brightened a little. "That is the famous Captain America, who died in World War II."

"He was real? Why have I never heard of him?"

"He wasn't the most well known among civilians. Unfortunately Mr. Steve Rogers was used mostly as a publicity icon for much of the war. His actual war efforts have become a bit of myth and have largely been forgotten by most of the world. He was a real hero though."

"wow. An unsung hero. That's so sad." as Coulson had talked, Rhea had turned her phone onto airplane mode and started it recording. She dropped her phone downwards along her leg and onto her foot.

"Most heroes are," said Coulson. Rhea silently let the phone slip from her foot to foot to the floor, where she pushed it gently under the sofa. There was a knock. Rhea turned to see the man from last night and a red haired woman come to a stop by the open door.

"Ah," Coulson moved out from behind his desk. "Agent Barton, Agent Romanov, come in."

The two agents entered. Coulson walked over to Rhea and escorted her to the door.

"Sorry Jaeger," he said. "These agents and I have a lot to do."

"Busy day ahead of you?"

"I'm afraid so," Coulson looked at his watch. "I have a meeting with Fury in two hours as well."

"Sounds thrilling," she grinned. "Well, I guess I'll go try shopping, or whatever normal women do."

"Sounds thrilling."

"Have a little more sass," she laughed. "Alright, see ya." she waved as she left. Two hours. She needed to stay close by, or she risked running into Rumlow. She headed back to bathroom she had stopped in to make the phone call. She could wait in one of the stalls and practice with her electricity for a little while. Maybe she could even find a sharpie on the floor somewhere and then she could graffiti on the bathroom walls. She could do something tasteful, like a mural of henna style tree.


	16. Chapter 16

Two hours later Rhea left the stall she had been hiding in. There was most of an ornate tree design on the inside of the door. She made her way carefully back through the halls and up to Coulson's office. She paused when she reached his door. She closed her eyes and felt outwards for anyone who might still be lingering in the office. There was no one. The doors in the SHIELD building were all operated with electric locks. You had to either swipe an ID or punch a code to enter most of the doors, sometimes you needed both. The lock for Coulson's office door was on the frame. It had a sensor for an ID card connected to a small key pad. Rhea placed her hand over it and cleared her mind. The black coloring crept up from the tips of fingers as she felt the power build. She sent it rushing down through her arm and out her hand. The key pad bleeped uncertainly as the system fried and she heard the lock click. She entered Coulson's office, closing the door behind her. On her hands and knees she reached under the couch and retrieved her phone. It had a single percent of battery life left. Rhea thanked the gods, ended the recording and turned off the phone. Next she crept to Coulson's desk where his computer was. She tapped the mouse and the screen turned on, it showed only a password box. Rhea looked around the office. Coulson, Coulson. If she were Coulson what kind of password would she use? Maybe... she typed in LOLA62 and hit enter. Wrong password. She looked at the shelves of display items. She typed CAPTAIN45 and hit enter. The screen opened to Coulson's desktop. She punched the air in victory. Now all she had to do was figure out how to get to the right files. She opened the documents folder and scanned down the list. Everything was code named. She tried typing in the search bar; Loomison. All the files disappeared but one labeled "M137". She clicked on it only to be greeted by yet another password verification. There was no way Coulson didn't have a password that revolved around that precious car of his. She tried the LOLA62 again. Nothing. LOLA_62. Wrong. 6LOLA2. Nothing. Rhea growled and typed, speaking in a sarcastic voice as she did, "Theamazing1962chevorletcorvettelola." The file opened.

"Dear Lord, Coulson!" she whispered.

The file opened up a profile on Bryan Loomis. There was a picture of him from some security footage next to his name, date of birth, known abilities, and rank in the Moth organization. Bellow that was a detailed report on everything SHIELD had learned about this man, including the name of his parents and his status as a student growing up. It was a little unnerving. Rhea mostly skimmed through it trying to find any information on a specific geographical location. She found it down near the bottom of the report. Most current know location was a small base located in Blaine County, Mt. There were other files attached that probably held more specific details, but these required voice confirmation. Well it was a start. If she was lucky, the recording of Coulson's meeting with the two agents would hold some slightly more helpful information. She closed down all the files and returned the computer to its sleep mode, then quietly and quickly exited the office. She needed to get out of the building and back to her apartment without the possibility of running into Rumlow. She took the emergency stair way down through the many floors till she reached the ground level. Here the stairs lead to either the building's lobby, out the fire escape door, or through a concrete passage the janitors and maintenance crew used. She followed the passage to a back exit that took her out directly into the street. From there she made her way back to her apartment, traveling behind buildings and down side streets in case Rumlow was heading to or from their shared home street. If he found her outside and healthy that would only lead to complicated questions.

Rhea was approaching her apartment building from the back street. She turned the corner of the house and darted back around it immediately. Rumlow was walking towards her apartment building's door. He was carrying a grocery bag in one of his hands.

"Oh my goodness!" she hissed to herself. "Is he bringing me soup?" The idea made her heart jump a little.

"Come on," she smacked herself. "Focus. Damn his perfection! You can't bring me soup if I'm not inside!"

Rumlow was reaching out for the door handle. Thinking fast, Rhea ran back behind the building. Across from her in the side alley between her building and the one next to it was an old little metal trashcan. Rhea stretched out her hand, focused on the bits of rubbish inside the can, and made them explode. It was a tiny explosion, but it was still noisy. The trashcan it happened in provided a nice amplification to sound. The garbage inside the can was burning nicely, she knew Rumlow would look around the edge of the building and see it. Sure enough, she hurried hurried footsteps coming to investigate. She ran around to the other side of the building and then to its front doors. She wrenched them open and ran inside. The entryway into the building was simple. The doors opened into small stone room with an elevator on one side and a set of stairs on the other. Rhea put her hand on the buttons by the elevator door and concentrated. There was a loud crackling sound and the smell of burnt wires. She turned and pelted up the stairs to the third floor. She speed walked, breathlessly to her apartment and entered, locking the door behind her. She plugged her phone into her charger, threw her clothes off, and pulled on her pajamas. She tousled her hair (not that it really made a difference) and ran to the kitchen. She needed to look sick. She was already a little sweaty from running up the stairs and she could make herself hot to the touch, no problem. But how do you fake symptoms? She grabbed her little dustpan and broom and hurried over to the living room where she swept up some dust from under the couch. Grimacing, she inhaled deeply over the dustpan a few times. After a moment or two, she sneezed. Perfect! Allergies. There was a knock on her door. She put the dustpan back without emptying it, ran silently over to her room where ship grabbed her quilt and wrapped it around herself. She then shuffled, sneezing all the way, over to her door and opened it. Rumlow was standing in her door way.


	17. Chapter 17

"I got you some stuff," he held up the grocery bag. "Mind if I come in?"

"You're not afraid of catching my germs?" she asked, her voice now stuffy from the sneezes.

"I've got pretty incredible immune system," he smiled. She returned the expression and motioned for him to enter. He headed for the kitchen while Rhea flopped onto one of the sofas like giant caterpillar.

"You been sick anymore since this morning?" he called.

"No," came her muffled response. "Thank goodness."

"Have you been drinking fluids?"

"... No." it was true. She hadn't drunk anything today.

""Well I got you some ginger tea, and some soup and crackers." he put a pot of water on to boil and in another one started heating up the soup.

"thank you," She said shyly. Rhea really wasn't sure what to say. She was so touched and flattered by the care and attention. It was truly unexpected.

"Sorry it's not homemade." he apologized. "I don't normally like to do stuff out of a can but this was faster. Here, let me take a look at you."

Rumlow walked around the couch, reached down and turned the Rhea-and-Quilt sushi roll over so she was looking at him. He looked at her eyes and felt her forehead.

"Looks, like you just have a bad cold. Maybe some mild food poisoning. You did go out with Coulson last night, right?"

"Yeah, we went to a some fancy Korean restaurant."

"so it's probably a mild case of food poisoning."

Rhea laughed. "yeah, probably."

"That's good though," Rumlow walked back to the stove and stirred the soup pot. "it means you should have no problem training tomorrow."

"oooh," Rhea moaned. "so. Sick. Dying..."

"Come on," he said. "The next lesson was about emyou/em attacking emothers/em with knives."

"sounds fun," she sneezed. "would you throw that tissue box at me?"

Rumlow walked over to her and placed it on her chest, then returned to the kitchen. He opened up one of her cupboards.

"Where do you keep- oh my god," he starred up into the shelves.

"What?" Rhea blew her nose. Her dishes were cute, what was the problem?

"God dammit!" Rumlow said as he opened another cupboard. Suddenly Rhea remembered what she kept in them. He pulled out a package and walked over to Rhea.

""Are you serious?" he asked holding it for her to see. Oops. She shrank a little into her blanket and stared wide eyed up at his face.

"They're not mine! I'm just holding them for a friend!"

"Right," he said. "Cause I'm sure Coulson just loves sticky buns!" he walked back into the kitchen, throwing open all the cupboards.

"Jesus Christ, how are you not not diabetic?"

Each cupboard was full of sugary snacks. Some had honeybuns and powdered donuts, others things like cupcakes and cheese danishes, and all had chocolate of some sort. He began pulling them all out of their stashes. In one of the drawers he found a pile of plastic bags, and began putting the contraband into them.

"Wait," Rhea sat up and looked over the back of the couch. She sneezed into a tissue a couple of times. "What are you doing!?" she demanded.

""you have a serious problem," Rumlow grabbed the bags and headed for her door. "And I'm being the help you need."

"Nooo!" she cried, flopping at him over the arm the sofa, like a sad cattail weed.

""This is tough love," he said as he stepped into the hallway.

"You don't understand," she cried desperately through her stuffy nose. "It's really not what it looks like! I don't have a problem! I only eat one piece a week, I swear! It's just that there was a sale so I bought in bulk, but it's going to last me a whole year!"

"Give up Jaeger," he began to walk down the hall. "You can't live your life this way."

"you can't tell me how to live!" she called after him furiously. She sobbed as she blew her nose. I'm crying, she thought. Oh dear, I think I sniffed too much of the dust, the allergies are getting so bad they're affecting my brain.

"Go ahead and take them Rumlow," she growled. "I've planned for such an occasion."

She reached beneath the sofa and felt around on its underside for the tear. She found it, stuck her hand up into the couch and pulled out a zip-lock bag with a package of bite sized cupcakes in it. She opened them up and ate four of them.

"It really was only about half of full sized cupcake, and I earned it," she told herself as she returned them to their hiding spot. "it's been a busy and stressful day so far." She sneezed repeatedly, blew her nose and flopped backwards on the sofa. Rumlow had come to take care of her. Maybe, because he... no. Don't go there. That emis/em something that would be bad for your health. You know how that story would end, how it could end. There will only be tears. Rhea lay curled up on the sofa and thought of those agents that had been killed because of her. She thought of how close Rumlow had come to being killed, and how close Coulson might come if he went on that mission he was planning. Her thoughts drifted to the time before this, when she had existed else where. Her heart surged with grief and she burst into tears, sobbing into a handful of tissues. She rolled over and hid her face in the folds of the quilt and the back of the couch. She wouldn't lose any one else.

"Alright," Rumlow came back bag-free, into the apartment. "That's taken care of for now." He looked down at the sad lump on the sofa. It was shaking ever so slightly.

"Jaeger, you're not... crying, are you? Over junk food?"

A tiny defiant tearful word was muffled at him, it sounded like, "no."

"I think this sickness is affecting my mind," she pulled the blanket away from her face just enough to be audible."I'm going crazy," she sobbed.

"I think that water is boiling," he said, trying not to laugh. He poured the hot water into a mug and placed the tea bag inside it. There was a small coffee table in front of the couch. He set the mug down on the end by Rhea's head. "Give that at least five minutes before you try and drink it." She reached out and drew another tissue into the recesses of the blanket. Rumlow grabbed something from the bag he brought with him. Rhea heard him moving around by the television, and then the familiar sound as it was turned on. He came over to sofa and tapped at where her feet probably were.

"Budge up," he said. She curled up more, and he sat down beside her.

"you missed a lot of good movies while you were gone," he said. "Let's take a look and see if there's any you wanna watch."

"has television changed that much?" she turned over and sat up a little.

"No, but technology has." he pointed to the television. There was a little box plugged into it now. "That's called a Roku player. I brought it from my apartment. Basically it allows you to access certain video websites and you get to watch them on your TV instead of a little laptop or phone screen.

"cool!" she sniffed. Rumlow pulled up netflix and began flicking through the options. Let's see..."

"ooo, look," Rhea pointed. "Predator! I liked those movies."

"they've made a couple more."

"Shut up! Seriously? We're so (achoo!) watching (achoo!) them."

""you got it."

It was fun watching the movies with Rumlow. They cracked jokes and ate soup and crackers. Rhea's self inflicted allergies disappeared before the first movie had even finished however, and she had to keep remembering to pretend to sneeze, or to blow her nose. During the second movie they watched Rhea looked up at the clock. It was almost three o'clock. She still had a lot to do before she could get to the airport at midnight. She looked over at Rumlow. She felt her fingertips started to catch flame again. She looked away and made the fire vanish before she burned her quilt. By this time tomorrow he might never talk to her again. She was about to break the trust of so many people. She had already done enough to get herself arrested. She just hoped they would understand that they were the reason she was going to do what she was planning. She hoped they would forgive her. If everything went according to plan, they would have no reason not to. She would have neutralized a serious threat. Temporarily anyways. Sooner or later the threat would return under some new name.

"I'm sorry you got suspended because of me," she said. Rumlow didn't say anything. "I'm sorry those others agents died because of me. I want to make sure no one else gets hurt because of me."

"Don't be sorry," he looked over at her. "Rhea that's our job. They knew their occupation was a hazardous one. I know it too. And I knew that what I did was going to have some consequences. I'm lucky suspension was all I got. Besides, I've enjoyed training you. I'll be kind of sorry when it's over."

"Me too," she smiled sadly.

"besides, it's impossible to go through life without other people getting hurt because you. How they get hurt changes based on circumstances but they're gonna get hurt."

"Trust me," she looked away. "I learned that lesson."

"There's such a playful innocence about you most of the time, something almost child like, and then suddenly this other person comes through that's the total opposite. Sometimes you seem so... old, like you've seen everything."

"the oldest people often do act children." she smiled at him. "they've seen enough to know that they don't need to give a fart about being normal, or social expectations. They can just be themselves." she looked away. "And sometimes, people are always laughing because the alternative would be always crying."

Rumlow studied her profile, a difficult expression on his face.

"Rhea Jaeger," he said. "where were you all those years?" it wasn't a real question. It was really just him thinking out loud. The movie ended and Rhea stretched.

"I think I'm gonna take a shower now, if you don't mind." she said. "wash off this sticky feeling now that I seem to be doing better."

"yeah, sure." he got up and unplugged the roku.

"Don't worry about the dishes, I'll take care of them."

"I expect you to be at practice tomorrow," he pointed at her as he left. "And we will be talking about your addiction."

"I am not addicted to anything!"

"keep telling yourself that. Drink some more of that ginger tea, too. It really is good for you."

"Yes sir," she saluted and closed the door. She washed the dishes they had used and then went into her bedroom where her phone had been charging. She grabbed a notebook and a pen and began playing the recording from Coulson's office.

 _"have a seat agents."_

 _"thank you, sir."_

 _"these folders contain everything we know about Bryan Loomison and Moth base in Montana where he is currently located."_

 _"Not a very large base."_

 _"No. As you'll see, from what we gather it's just small research lab."_

 _"...'believe …improved method and technology for …Rhea Jaeger (currently located at SHIELD DC HQ)'."_

 _"You really think they'd try going after her again?"_

 _"We know Loomison is willing to try. We're not yet sure if his superiors are as optimistic."_

 _Rhea listened patiently, waiting for the moment she hoped would come. Finally it did._

 _"On the map here, it shows the base is only ten miles from the river and only twenty miles from the road, that doesn't seem very secluded for an illegal operation."_

 _"it's more secluded than it looks. The Water Snake moutains form a gorge on three sides of the base. It's incredibly dangerous, only the suicidal would try to hike in that area. We think they built some underground road that connects to the main road here but we haven't found any entrances yet."_

 _"are we going to be taking the chopper in?"_

 _""too loud. We'll be taking one of the jets, and parachute in."_  
The rest of the conversation seemed to be about logistics. Rhea had what she had been looking for anyways. She pulled up a map of Montana on her phone. She found the Water Snake mountain range and looked for a position on them that matched the agents description. Fifteen miles and ten miles, that would be right... there. She could fly into the Billings airport and then she would need to charter a small plane to fly her to the mountains. A flight from DC to Montana, that would take about six hours with a change of planes included. Then a flight to the mountain range, maybe another hour. So it would be seven AM when she reached the general location. Rumlow would come looking for her by eight. That gave her one hour. If she was lucky it would be another hour before they realized where she'd gone, and she'd say another three hours before they touched down on the same mountain range. So she would have about five hours to find and infiltrate the Moth base. Now she just had to wait until eleven-thirty.


	18. Chapter 18

The apartment was cleaned, the clothes were folded. She had taken care to do her laundry the day before. She left a note in the fridge telling where there was food hidden to make sure nothing went bad. Considering how much sugar and preservatives were in her hidden snacks this was not very probable but at any rate it didn't seem tasteful to leave food inside of the furniture and floor boards. She took with her only what she absolutely needed and left everything else behind. She deleted the recording from her phone before placing it on top of the coffee table. She didn't bother to lock her door and she had put the key next to her phone. The airport had still been surprisingly full, but that was probably better. It's easier to hide in a crowd. The plane she took was fairly small. Strangely, she felt less secure in this little plane than she would have in one of the really big ones, which she found curious since to her mind, a bigger object is _more_ likely to fall out of the sky. She caught a few more hours of sleep on the flight, wanting to be as well rested as she could. Her dreams were powerful and cleared much of the blocked energy she had been feeling. She was returning to what she had once been.

When she reached Billings, she approached a help desk.

"excuse me," she said. "I'm very sorry to bother you, but I contacted a Mr. Fardling about an independent flight. I'm not sure where to go."

"Well," said the man at the desk. He had been very tired and irritable before, but now he was finding he felt rather awake and cheerful. Must have been the coffee kicking in. "Let me look for his name. Fardling, James? Oh yep, alright. I'm going to have someone escort you there. Hey Ron!"

A passing man in uniform came over to them.

"Are you busy?"

"Not really."

"Would you mind taking this young lady down to the private terminal?"

"Sure thing. This way, miss."

They made their way through the airport with the mandatory amount of small talk. Rhea carefully kept the conversation as much about the security guard as tact allowed. It was five AM when Rhea was finally deposited at a tiny terminal that was hidden away at the end of the airport. She waited with surprising patience until at last the terminal door opened. An older man in leather jacket and faded ball cap came through.

"You must be Miss Jaeger."

"Yes sir."

"Well the planes all ready to go. Is that all you're bringing?" He pointed to the tiny back pack she carried. She nodded.

"alright then," he tucked the bill of his cap. "Let's go."

Rhea had been a little tense on that small passenger jet. Now, in this tiny plane, she clutched at the seat for dear life and tried to fight down her survival instincts. The man pointed down after about an hour.

"We're approaching the mountain now. I told you I can't actually land anywhere on this range, we'll have to go past it."

"How low can you get to the trees?"

"why?"

"for the view."

"You won't be able to see much, the sky's barely starting to lighten up."

"I'll pay an extra nine-hundred."

he was silent then, "I suppose I could do a little dip down."

"Thanks. Just wait till after we're over the ravine."

They were almost on top of the mountain now, and the little plane was rapidly climbing lower. A deeper darkness below them told Rhea that they were crossing the ravine. She strained her eyes in the darkness. In the early morning hours the pitch black of the night had faded to only a dull darkness. As they plane continued to drop down and they came to the other side of the ravine, she could just make out a tiny point of light below them.

"This is as low as I can go with no light." the pilot said.

"How far over the trees are we?"

"hard to say, but my guess is about fifty feet."

"The rest of the money is in here," rhea swung the backpack off and put it between the seats. "Now I need to go, thank you for everything."

Before the pilot could say a thing a flame had run from her toes to her head and vanished, and the black markings had appeared on her body. She opened the plane door and jumped. She only faintly heard the yell of the pilot. Branches began to break around her as she fell through the trees and then WHAM! She hit the ground. There was the briefest flash of pain, then she got up and shook herself. Now, which way? She had jumped facing this direction which meant the plane had come from that direction. She sprinted forward up the slope, jumping off rocks and over the occasional fallen tree. She cam to a stop a few minutes later and closed her eyes, listening to the world around her. Not the physical world, but the real world; the world that would still be there when all thing physical and burned and passed away. She need to adjust her course a little. She felt a shift in the landscape up ahead. Probably a cliff was near by. She opened her eyes, turned slightly and continued on, this time at a normal running speed. Up ahead the ground began to grow more and more vertical. There was a boulder sticking out of the mountain face just before the slope turned straight up and down. She sped up to as fast as she could go, racing up the steep ground. When she was level with the top of the rock, she lept sideways onto it and the jumped, launching herself up. Her outstretched hands landed on the rocky cliff face, and her claws dug into the cracks. She began to climb the remaining yards, to the top. As she reached up to catch onto a handhold, her the piece of rock her foot was on broke. Her weight had been resting on that leg and she was now kicking downward. Her remaining hand clutched desperately as it slid back along the protrusion. She manage to to stop the momentum, and took a calming breath before continuing to climb. Finally she reached the top of the cliff. She pulled her self up and froze. The air had almost imperceptible sizzle to it and there were no trees all along the edge of the cliff. Carefully, Rhea picked up a small thistle that had sprouted, she stood up, and gently tossed it in front of her. It zapped and sizzled.

Rhea edged sideways along the electric field. After a few minutes she found what she had been looking for. A thin metal pole stuck about twenty feet up out of the ground. She suspected that these poles had been erected every so often all around the base, and that they connected the force field. She could probably just walk right through the field, but it might knock her out for a little, and she definitely couldn't afford that. She closed her eyes and focused on the pole in front of her. She would need a lot of power behind this one. She felt the electricity building up inside her, more and more. It was a frantic ball of white hot light boiling inside her until, finally it burst out of her in a lightning bolt that struck the pole. There was smoke, but the sizzling had stooped. Rhea stepped forward, there was no force field here anymore. She ran on through the trees and nearly smacked head first into concrete.

"hello!" she said as she skidded to a halt. She slapped her hand over her mouth as the word escaped her. There was the sound of running footsteps somewhere beside her. She heard someone break off from the group and head towards her. She pressed herself up against the wall. A chunky private security type of guy came poking around the corner. She jumped at him and slammed his head against the wall. He dropped like a broken doll. Rhea waited until the last set footsteps was trailing off through the trees before she made her way around the corner and down the slope to the exit the security detail had come from. The heavy door was not yet closed. She darted forward and slid inside. The two guards closing the door yelled as she slid in between them. She grabbed both their ankles and zapped them. They jerked and fell to the ground, twitching slightly. Rhea got to her feet and looked around. She was in small corridor that lead to the underground level. There was a small command station by the door. She would need to take out cameras, security protocols, and communication all in one. She walked over to the command station. She drew back her hand and drove it through the screens like a knife. Her claws severed the wires inside and the electricity crackled up and into her. She hissed through her teeth, then took all that power and forced it back down through tubes. With her aid it grew bigger and bigger as it traveled along the wires. It moved fast as lightning through the base, blowing fuses and overloading computers till finally it found the heart of the base and exploded.

…...

The lights went out. Screens went black, everything was dead. Loomison pulled out a lighter and made his way to his communication panel. He was not surprised to find it dead as well. After rummaging around a bit he found a flashlight to use instead. He ran back to the main security room.

"Do we know what happened?" He asked.

"Negative sir," said one of the men. "But I'm positive it is related to the disruption with the fence."

"Oh, you figured that out did you? Why isn't the back up on?"

"Mazroni's working on it sir. Coms are down but radios work."

"Mazroni here." avoice crackled in over the radio on the key pad.

"What can you give us Mazroni?"

"it's not looking good. It's not just that the center is dead, most of the wires are fried. I think you'll be able to get power but I don't know that anywhere else will."

"How long?"

"Give me two seconds." there was a pause. "Anything?"

"No."

Another pause, then most of the screens in the little room came back on.

"That's it Mazroni."

"Roger that."

"So," said loomison. "Now that we have some of our screens back, can you get any information on what happened."

"I will try sir, however the prospects are unlikely." the man began typing into the computer system. "Most of the data is stored in the mainframes in the center. But, some of it gets stored here first. Like a pit stop. I might be able to- aha!"

Security footage popped up onto a few of the active screens. One of the screens showed, in the green of night vision, one of the entrances to the base, and the group of men going out to check the fence. After they had all gone out of sight of the camera, a dark blur raced through the open doorway into the base. Loomison narrowed his eyes.

"Zoom in on that," he said. The man at the controls obliged. The figure moved fast and it was hard to pick up any detail on it. However, there was one feature that seemed to stand out.

"I think..." said the man. "that it's a woman. The hair."

"Yeah," Loomison broke into a smile. "She's an old flame of mine." he straightened up, and left the little room, laughing the whole time.

…...

Rhea ran through the black hallways of the building, her slitted eyes, had no trouble with the darkness. She kept the flame off though, she didn't want to be seen. Up ahead flashlights were moving. She sped up. The person in front heard the sound of her fast approach. They raised their flashlight and gun, saw the golden eyes, then was sent flying backwards. Rhea slashed and kicked at the remaining Moth members of the little group. When they were all down she moved on. It was mostly little groups she encountered as she made her way up through the levels. On the last two contingency she found one of the had a walkie-talkie. She cursed under her breath. Nothing she could do about radio waves.

When she came up to the second story, there was a stillness to the darkness. There was no sound of frantic searching, no flashlights. She stepped forward tentatively. She was in a large area, almost like a lobby. There was even a resting plant against the opposite wall. She looked at it. Then at the waiting blackness ahead of her. She looked at the plant again. It burst into flames. Several bullets smashed the pot and tore apart the burning plant. Rhea smiled. There you are. She engulfed herself in flames. Fingers started to move in the darkness, squeezing the triggers on the hidden guns. Eight firing pins slammed into the butt of eight bullets. Rhea felt the sparks burst into life. Normally the explosions that would have followed would have been tiny, only big enough to fire the bullets. But under Rhea's influence, the eight explosions blossomed to much larger proportions. Eight bullets passed through Rhea's body while the men hiding in the darkness screamed as most of them were caught in the blasts. The walls shook and ceiling tiles crumbled. The smell of smoke and burning filled the air. By the light of the flames she could see the thugs retreating, leaving their comrades to die from their wounds. Rhea tried not to look and the bodies on the floor. As she stepped over the carnage, a few of the remaining men tried to crawl away, and a few lay twitching. If she passed anyone that was only prolonging the inevitable, she reached down and placed her hand on their chest. There would be an unpleasant sound from inside them, a moment of shock, then peace. For those who would survive, a good kick to the head seemed to suffice. She was halfway through clearing the second floor. She attacked everyone, the soldiers who fought her, and the researchers who fled from her. Every lab and office she found she blew up and burned, doing her very best to destroy every last scrap of Moth's research and experimentation. Where was Loomison though? Waiting till the very end no doubt.

Rhea opened the door to the stairs, and went sailing back wards. She got back to her feet as quickly as she could. It was not quite fast enough. Another blow to her ribs sent her back once more. This time she rolled with it and was ready for the next blow. The man she fought was fast, and light on his feet. He dodged and wove between her attacks, landing many blows himself and pushing her back. She could hear more fighters coming from a hallway to her left. Finally she got a good punch in that sent the man staggering backward. She lept forward, landed on the upright man with all fours, like a cat. Her two hands, gripping at his chest, filled with electricity and she sent it into him. He flew backwards from her like she had hit him with two high powered defibrillators. She landed back on her feet and whipped around, blocking a blow from one of the newcomer men. She still had a fistful of lightning and she gave it to him. She made to dart forward and engage the next two men but there were two phut noises, and they dropped. Behind them, stood Rumlow.

Rhea gasped and took a swaying step backwards.

"No!" she said. "It's too soon!"

"Rhea." He stepped over the two men towards her. "Just, what... the _fucking_ _hell_ were you thinking?"

"You're not supposed to be here!" she clutched at her forehead with her hands.

"Rhea do you have any idea what you've done?"

"I did what I had too!"

"You had to do this!?" he demanded. "God dammit Rhea!"

"Yes I had too. You think I didn't put two and two together? Coulson's mission with Barton and Romanov, the reappearance of Loomison. I will not just sit around while other people fight my battles, while other people die because of me! Not the SHIELD agents, not Coulson, not you. I never thought they would send you. You were stupid to follow me! I had this all under control! I was fine! I was doing this so that SHIELD wouldn't have to, to make sure you don't get killed!"

"Rhea you say you're part of SHIELD now, but you're still thinking in terms of someone who's alone. You're not alone anymore. You're part of a team now, and as your team, we're here to make sure _you_ don't get killed."

"You don't understand," she cried, grabbing at his jacket. "you don't understand any of it! You _have_ to leave!"

"Yeas, and I'm leaving with you," he grabbed her wrist and turned to go, pulling her behind him. "The others aren't too far behind me-"

Rhea brought her free hand down onto his, digging her claws in. Rumlow yelled in surprise and released her. She kicked him in the chest, pushing him away from her. She got him on the jaw and the back of the knee. He retreated from her quickly, trying to recover from the surprise attack. Rhea burst into white hot flames and snarled at him.

"Get lost!" she roared. Rumlow's expression darkened. Without warning he was on top of her, his fists wrapped in her hoodie at the top of the zipper. The shock of it caused Rhea's flame to extinguish instantly and as she clutched at his wrists a small prickle of fear seized her heart. Rhea half expected him to hit her, but next thing she knew, he was pulling her into his arms. He held her tightly and after a moment of confusion, Rhea put her arms around him as well.

"Please, Rhea," he whispered. She closed her eyes and a tear rolled down her cheek.


	19. Chapter 19

The world seemed to melt away for Rhea as Rumlow held her. Where she was and why she was there wasn't important. Nothing else was important, everything was fine. A clicking sound so tiny it was almost imperceptible, snapped her back to reality. She opened her eyes, and over Rumlow's shoulder she saw the reason she had come to this place. Bryan Loomison was at the far end of the hallway and he was aiming a gun at them. Rhea readjusted her hold on Rumlow and whipped around so that it was her back that was facing the oncoming bullet. As she spun the two of them around she pushed Rumlow down and away from her to get him as out of harm's way as possible. She wasn't fast enough. Rhea felt the bullet hit her in the back. It tore out of her chest and hit the falling Rumlow just above the collarbone in the side of his neck. Rhea continued to spin round until she was facing Loomison once more and she hit him with a bolt of electricity. He was blasted backwards into the staircase and over the railing. She hadn't prepped for it so that bolt had a lot more bark than bite. Loomison would be fine, Rumlow on the other hand...

"Bunny!" Rhea dove down to his side. He was choking on blood, his hands desperately trying to stem the flow that was coming from his neck. Rhea ripped off her sweat shirt and used her claws to tear strips off of it. She put a ball of fabric on the wound and then tied it in place with a strip of cloth.

"Bunny, hang on," she put her hand on his face. "where's your comlink thingy?"

He held out one of his wrists.

"Man down!" Rhea shouted into it. "Man down, I need medical assistant stat." as she said she could already hear the footsteps of the 'others' Rumlow had mentioned. She shouted for the approaching group to hurry. She heard a grunt from behind her. Loomison was leaning on the door frame of the stairwell.

"That was different," he said. Then threw himself sideways as another bolt of electricity was sent his way. Rhea jumped up and sprinted after him. Flame rippled over her body and the air around her fizzed and crackled. She rounded a corner and got a fist to face. She staggered backward but blocked the next blow and brought her elbow down to brake the bone. Loomison caught her elbow and threw her backwards.

"not bad Jaeger," he danced from foot to foot, fists up. "I see your time at SHIELD was being put to good use. Still, you're not quite good enough yet."

He swung, left left right left, then knocked Rhea's legs out from under her. She flung out her arm and caught his ankle. He yelled and jolted as the shock coursed through him. He kicked her off of him and danced backward. There was the sound of approaching men. He turned to face them and Rhea made use of the distraction. She leapt at his back like an animal, digging her claws deep into his chest and head and biting as hard as she could at the spot where his neck met his shoulder. Loomison howled and grabbed at her. The men that had come running around the corner stopped in horror at the sight. Rhea's flame would not hurt Loomison but as she hung onto him with her claws and teeth, she sent another wave of electricity into his body. Slowly, fighting the pain he tightened his grip on Rhea. She dug in deeper into his flesh, dragging her claws across his skin. He pulled hard, and threw her off his back, over his shoulder and into the gaggle of watching men. The men dodged the flaming beast woman and open fired on Loomison. The sound of the gunshots was short lived and when Rhea got to her feet, Loomison was gone. She started to give chase, then remembered.

"Rumlow!" she gasped, and pushed through the soldiers, racing back toward her wounded friend. There was a large group of SHIELD agents milling around in the area. Flashlights were shining back and forth and a few industrial looking glow sticks had been placed around to give more light. Rumlow was being carried away quickly by four men. Rhea ran to be by his side but someone caught her by the arms.

"Coulson she's here!" yelled Romanov. Coulson came hurrying over. It was odd to see him in the SHIELD gear, instead of a suit.

"Rhea, oh my god," Coulson looked shocked. He had never seen her transformed before and to top it off she blood dripping down her front. "Are you hurt!?" he demanded, inspecting her for injury.

"What? No I'm fine of course." the metallic taste in her mouth reminded her of what had Coulson so concerned.

"The blood's not mine," she said quickly trying to mop some of it off her face. "It's Loomison's."

"Loomison?" Coulson looked behind her. "where is he?"

"I don't know," she said. Her appearance began to shift back to normal. "he threw me at your people and then disappeared."

"Barton Loomison is on the move somewhere, probably headed outside the facility, badly injured judging by the blood." Romanov headed off talking into her wrist.

"You're not hurt though?" Coulson asked again.

"No, but Rumlow is, I need-"

Coulson smacked her. It wasn't hard, just shocking.

"Rhea just what the hell were you thinking!?" he took her by the arm and began leading her quickly away from the scene.

"What was I thinking?" she demanded. "I was thinking I didn't want to see anyone else get into trouble or get hurt or _die_ because some nut job thinks I'm a golden goose! I was thinking about how I'm probably more trouble than I'm worth to SHIELD and I was thinking, that I would come here, clean up this mess and disappear before any more trouble happened. That's what I was thinking."

They were sprinting down towards the window at the end of the hall. There was a man helping another agent lower down on a line.

"Rhea, you are not trained for this kind of situation, not by a long shot. You could have been killed, you could've been captured by Loomison and who knows what Moth would have done to you."

"Not trained?" they came to a stop by the window. "Coulson, were you awake during your raid through the building?"

"We will talk about this more later, with Fury." he turned to the agent standing by the window. "Get her out of here pronto!"

"yes sir!" the agent said. He leaned out the window and said something to the agent that was descending the line. Then he grabbed Rhea and helped through the window, handing her down to the agent below. This probably wasn't the time to mention that she could have just jumped down the three stories. When they reached the ground she and the agent ran across the forest floor to a black jet that firing up by the edge of the ravine. They ran up the gang plank and she was ushered into a seat along side a couple other agents. There was an ambulance station towards the front of the jet. Rhea could see Rumlow laying on it, surrounded by strange medical equipment, though her view was mostly blocked by the two of the agents worked on him. The jet's hatch closed and they lifted off. When they were airborne the woman agent that had helped her down the line came over to inspect her.

"I'm fine," she said waving her away. "It's not my blood. How is he?" she nodded anxiously toward Rumlow. "Is he going to make it?"

"I don't know," she said and sat down.

"hey," another agent addressed Rhea. "All that damage, that was you? You took out the electricity, all those men?"

Rhea shrugged and they got the hint. The agents murmured amongst each other instead. Rhea watched the two agents that were leaning over Rumlow and tried to listen to what they were saying. There was still a definite urgency to their voices and movements. The air around them wreaked of determination and something like panic. Rhea tried to keep this from effecting her, but the terror that had seized her heart the moment the bullet hit Rumlow was not going anywhere. She expected any minute for the two medical agents to turn to face her with the expression worn by those who have excepted the inevitable.

 _Hold on Bunny. Please..._

"when are we getting to the hospital!?" one of the medics demanded of the pilot.

"fifteen minutes!" the pilot called back.

"Damn!"

"'Damn'?" Rhea choked. "he can make it can't he?"

The medic who had sworn turned to face her, Rhea's heart sank.

"you're a friend?"

"yes."

"We're going to do our best, but there's a lot we can't even touch. I'm sorry, but I would prepare myself for the worst if I was you."

Rhea tried to swallow her stomach back where it belonged. She felt as though she might be sick, like her heart was going to explode and then shrivel up. She did her best to hold in the emotions that tried to spill from her like her tears. An emotionally distraught plane full of people would only lower Rumlow's chances.


	20. Chapter 20

The jet made an emergency landing at the nearest hospital. Medical personnel came running in and carried Rumlow away. Rhea felt numb, watching her unconscious friend being carried away to fight for his life. The rest of the flight back to DC was just a shadow. She hardly notice the hours that passed on the trip. If anything, she wished it had been longer. When they arrived, an escort was waiting for her. She was lead to a secure part of the headquarters, and put in a room that was clearly meant for people was not feeling very friendly towards. There she waited. She wasn't sure how long. There was a narrow bed on one wall of the holding cell. She lay down but didn't sleep. She merely drifted into her thoughts.

Everything had gone wrong. What she had meant to stop from happening was exactly what had happened, what was happening. If only they had come just half an hour later. Just half an hour later and she would have finished what she had intended and she could have slipped away. She could still slip away, she could leave right now, make a break for it. They couldn't find her where she could go. After- she didn't know how long- the door opened and Coulson entered, followed by Fury.

"How is Rumlow?" she sat up to face the two men.

"Alive. The doctors say he'll be fine," Coulson said. Fury turned the metal chair so it faced Rhea. He sat down, leaning back with his arms folded, his expression hard.

"So we know you broke into Coulson's office," he said after a moment. "we know you hacked into his computer and accessed classified SHIELD files, and I'd be willing to bet that the reported tree graffiti was you too. But I know you couldn't have gotten all the information you needed from the files you opened. So what other illegal things did you do to find out about that base?"

"When I visited Coulson that morning I turned my phone on record and left it under his office sofa. I recorded the meeting he had with Barton and Romanov. I waited in the bathroom until I knew his office would be empty. I retrieved my cell phone and tried to get whatever data I could from his files just in case."

Fury face showed grim and disbelief at her actions, but Coulson's expression remained deadpan.

"so you get back to your apartment," Fury narrated. "You use this recording and the stolen information to plan a solo strike attack for just a few hours later. You then manage to fly all the way to Montana before anyone notices you're gone, and single-handedly take down the defenses and just about all of the assets of a Moth base."

"More or less."

"How?" Fury cocked his head to one side.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean, you're this powerful person, but you can't control your powers, you either don't remember what happened to you when you were gone or too much of a fragile traumatized young girl too be able to talk about it. You show signs of needing all this help and training and then you pull your little solo mission with the Moth base and prove that you don't need anything. I would hesitate a guess miss Jaeger, to say you've been lying to us. And I think you have more abilities than you've said. The way you don't seem to ever get injured for instance."

They sized each other up for a minute or two. Then Rhea sighed. She had lost the right to total secrecy she knew that. She owed them some explanation, especially Coulson.

"I can't be physically hurt. That's true," she said. "but really, the best way to explain my story to you, is to have you feel it. There's a lot that you couldn't understand if I just told it to you."

"what do you mean about having us feel it?"

"I'm an empathic being."

"So you can control emotions?"

"Yes, that's part of it. And I can show you my story through my feelings. Think of it like a telepath sharing a memory with you, but we'll be using emotions instead of thoughts."

"I'm not to enthusiastic about anyone controlling any part of me." Fury said.

"that's why I try not to use my empathic nature. But how this will work is that I will put out an empathic field in this room and I will feel my way through the story. If you wish to know about me, then stay in the room and be a part of the emotions. If you feel uncomfortable about any of it, just leave the room."

After a moment of thought, Fury nodded. He looked up at Coulson who nodded as well. Rhea closed her eyes and went back to that day, fifteen years ago, when her life had changed.

….

Fury and Coulson came staggering out of the room and quickly shut the door behind them. As soon as they were out of the room they were fine. Their breathing went back to normal and the tears stopped. The pain in their chest disappeared as well. Fury flicked a switch and pressed the button on the wall and spoke into the little panel.

"Rhea!" he shouted. "Snap out of it!"

"I'm sorry," a little voice was heard from the same panel. "If that was rather overwhelming for you. Give me a moment to clear the room and then you can come back in."

"that wasn't like anything I've ever experienced," Coulson mused.

"you hear people talk about empaths in books and televisions," Fury said. "I always pictured it as a pretty soft power. Kind of wimpy, honestly. She is definitely not that."

"You can come in." the little voice said again. Fury flicked the switch back down and the two men entered once more.

"You are certainly a hell of a lot stronger than you let on," Fury said as he entered. "And not just cause of this empathic thing you've got going on, though I can assure you we will be looking at that now too. What you did at the Moth compound in Montana and just now, I felt your power during that …show."

"well, miss Jaeger," he said. "I do have a much better understanding of you as a person and of your motivation behind your recent actions. However, you committed several felonies and acts of espionage against a government organization. You cost us time and money and the well being of our men, not to mention whatever information was in that Moth facility because you destroyed it all. You will stay here until tomorrow when you will be brought back to your apartment and kept under a constant surveillance while we decide what to do with you."

Fury turned and left the little room for the last time. Coulson followed behind him, but stopped at the door and turned to Rhea. He looked as though he wanted to say something. Whether he couldn't find the words, or had thought better of it, he ended up turning away and walking out.

…...

The last thing he remembered was two agents kneeling over him while he lay bleeding to death on the floor. Now he rose through the heavy fog that one only encounters in a hospital to consciousness. He could feel the painkillers flooding his systems but even so he hurt. His neck, his shoulder; both felt sore and stiff and tender. He stared up at the white ceiling of the hospital room that he had momentarily thought had been heaven. Which was stupid of me, he thought to himself. When I go I highly doubt I'll be seeing a white light.

So he was alive. That was good. But why had he been bleeding to death in the first place? He'd been shot. That was it, he'd been shot. He had been falling- no someone had pushed him. Someone had tried to push him out of the way. Had they been shot? Who had pushed- he remembered the flaming curls. Rhea! And she had chased after the shooter! He tried to sit up and yelled at the pain. Some came hurrying over to him.

"Oh good!" they said. "You're awake. You're at the Merciful Hearts Hospital in-"

"Whht hahd a rhah?" he said hoarsely.

"What?"

"What happened to Rhea?" he tried again.

"Who's Rhea?" the young man asked.

"Fire, big bright hair," Rumlow used his good arm to make poofy motions by his head. The man stared at him, clearly thinking that the drugs had not quite left Rumlow's brain yet. Then an expression of clarity came over his face.

"Ooooh, you mean that woman! That one we were looking for? Yeah, she was dressed like a civilian, covered in blood- big bright hair, yeah. She got on the jet with us. As far as I know she was perfectly fine."

Rumlow relaxed a little.

"Well, I'll go get a nurse to look at you."

A nurse came, and then a doctor. They asked him how he felt, and poked at his shoulder a bit. He was given a prescription for pain killers and he was informed that he could home the day after tomorrow. They just wanted to keep him there for a little while longer, just to make sure nothing came up. To make sure no blood clots making their way to my brain, Rumlow translated silently.

But no blood clots did kill him in the twenty four hours that followed and he was discharged with prescription and a list of instructions on how to care for his shoulder. He and the young agent boarded the first flight to DC. Once they landed he was sent straight to Fury to be debriefed. He wasn't terribly surprised to be sent to the top. The whole situation was incredibly serious. Security had been breached from the inside, that was a matter for SHIELD's director. He carefully explained what he had seen as he entered the building and how he had come to find Rhea. He left out a few of the details of what happened between him finding Rhea, and when he was shot.

"How is Jaeger?" he asked Fury at the end of their meeting.

"I still haven't decided that." was the response.

It was a relief to finally get back to his own apartment. He sank into his sofa and closed his eyes. He was so tired. He was starving too. He got up and went to make something to eat. 'I haven't decided yet' Fury had said. Why had she done it? Why couldn't she have just left it to SHIELD. Now she was in trouble and he had gotten shot. The part that worried him though, the thing that made him really nervous, was that he wasn't mad at her. The most he felt was some mild frustration, and that wasn't right. He should be furious with her. She had lied to hi- to them, committed crimes of espionage against SHIELD, had cost them time, money and worry, and he wasn't upset. In fact he hoped everything worked out for her. He hoped that Fury was understanding and that he went easy on her.

As he lay in his bed trying to find a position that was comfortable for his shoulder, he noticed that the cracks in his ceiling worked together with a stain that was up there to make the shape of a rabbit. I wonder why she calls me Bunny sometimes, he thought.

"Oh dear God help me," he said.


	21. Chapter 21

"so have you decided what you want to do with miss Jaeger?" Coulson turned to Fury who sighed.

"not quite," he said. "i hoped knowing her story would make a decision clearer but if anything it's made things more complicated."

"I still trust her. She was only trying to protect us from Moth, and herself, I think."

"that's just it though. You felt that power. I am almost certain that she could wipe out the world if she wanted to. I don't think she does. In fact, her hiding her power from her actually speaks to her credit. She is aware of the potential danger she poses."

"besides," coulson added. "it seems that it was not her choice to return."

"Which brings up another issue. She refers to her power both as her own abilities and as a separate entity, so which is it? Is she... possessed?"

"she does seem to undergo personality changes the more power she shows."

Fury stared out his office window.

"Boundaries definitely need to be established," he said. "the question is, how do we enforce those boundaries?"

"I do believe she will respect them. She seems to understand the situation a little better now, and I think we can count on her to follow rules and to be straight with us. Well, straighter, anyways."

"I agree," Fury turned to face Coulson. "I think if we clearly lay down the ground rules she _will_ follow them, right up until she feels the need to break them again."

"So what then? You try to keep her under lock and key for the of her life?"

"which," the director snorted. "who knows how long that is, what with her healing capabilities. She just might be immortal. But no, I wouldn't do that. Her movements will be restricted. After all she did break into your office and stole SHIELD intel, she's lost the right to total freedom."

"I still can't believe she guessed my password," Coulson shook his head sadly.

"I no longer want her and Rumlow working together anymore. First he goes vigilante on us, and then he manages to convince you to let him break his suspension so he can go help find her and he gets shot in the neck. Call me paranoid but I see a pattern developing."

"I am actually going to have to argue with you on that one," Coulson said. Fury raised his eyebrow and folded his arms.

"really?"

"you see a dangerous pattern developing, but I see something much more positive. I see a bond of loyalty between those two. Rhea trusts Rumlow. We know Rumlow to be a tried-and-true agent. If she listens to him, then she listens to us. If those two are working together then I have more confidence that Rhea will follow orders and stick to any plans she's given. Part of why she can work so well with him and trust him is because he trusts her. Not many will be very trusting of her after this incident. I also think the actions Rumlow has taken when dealing with miss Jaeger show that he will be diligent, determined, and firm with her."

"so you thinks he's the perfect handler,"

"that's rather crude but yes."

"it also sounds like you still see Rhea working in the field."

"We'd be foolish not to. She could prove to be one of our greatest assets."

"our good assets don't usually commit insurrection against us."

"True. But be fair. She didn't really choose to be with us. She's done pretty well for someone who's essentially been press ganged. I think the best way to move forward would be to show her she's not mandated to stay here."

"we can't just set her off into the world, Phil."

"I don't mean that. We need to keep her here, yes, and we need to show her that there are consequences for her actions, but we also need to let her see that she has a choice to be with us or not. I think if you do this, not only will she choose to stay but once she has made that choice, she will take accountability for it and her basic attitude towards SHIELD will change."

"I see what you're saying," Fury rubbed his forehead. "and you're right. It makes a huge difference if she chooses to be rather than us choosing for her. How would you go about this though?"

"i think the direct approach would be what works best. Just telling her we she doesn't have to stay but we really wish she would and then let her know that if she does, things will need to be different."

"alright then," Fury nodded. "that sounds good. Let me know how it goes."

"Actually sir," Coulson cleared his throat. "you need to be the one to do it."

"what? Why is that?"

"you are the director, sir, you are the symbol SHIELD. She doesn't trust you because she doesn't trust SHIELD. If you offer the olive branch it will be much more potent than if it's someone she's already friends with."

Fury stared at Coulson.

"On a scale of one to ten Coulson, how much do you enjoy being right all the time?"

"oh, probably only an eight sir."

…...

Rhea was back in her apartment by now. Since both of her neighbors were currently home from missions, they had been charged with monitoring her apartment. They even stopped by unexpectedly from time to time to make she wasn't up to anything shady. Her cellphone was being monitored as well, probably to make sure she wasn't looking up how to build bombs, or trying to hack into SHIELD again. She had been allowed to send out for groceries and requested enough baking ingredients to feed the homeless. She felt restless trapped in her apartment all day long. Normally she would have been busy training with Rumlow, but he was a little busy dealing with a bullet wound to the throat. Guilt was nipping at her constantly, adding to her restlessness. If her plan had succeeded and she had taken out that base in time, she would have slipped away and everyone would have been happy and safe without her. Now, being here under house arrest though, everything about her plan seemed stupid and childish. She had let down Coulson and Rumlow, and she had shown herself to be untrustworthy and a liar. She wondered if Coulson and Rumlow would be able to forgive her. It made her squirm inside and she dealt with it all the best way she knew how; excessive baking.

When Rhea answered her door she had flour all up her apron and it was starting to creep onto her face. Fury and Coulson raised their eyebrows at the ghost in front of them.

"Coulson, Director Fury," she motioned for them to enter. There was a binging noise and Rhea rushed to kitchen area. Fury and Coulson edged into the apartment, and sat carefully on the couch.

"not too shabby," Rhea smiled as she pulled the tray of cupcakes from the oven. "these need to cool and then I'll need to frost them, but help yourself to any of the cookies."

Several towers of cookies towered ominously on the counter. Coulson crept forward and inspected them. He selected two that were probably chocolate-chip and handed one to Fury. The Director took a polite bite, chewed twice, and then looked down at the cookie in his hand.

"oatmeal," he said.

"Really?" Coulson bit into his happily. Fury gave him a look of scandalized bemusement.

"So," Rhea brushed her hands off on her apron. "what's happening now?"

"Miss Jaeger," Fury stood up. "We've decided that the best course of action to take, would be to continue training you towards being able to enter the field. However, your access to this facility will be greatly restricted. We will continue to monitor your cellphone and any other computerized device you might access."

"really?" she said. "you're still gonna have me work for you?"

"if you choose to stay."

"what?"

"I realize now," Fury sighed. "that your position with us might not have been made clear. It may have seemed to you that we were forcing you into coming to SHIELD."

"You did a pretty good job of making it seem that my only choices are you or Moth," she nodded.

"That's not the case," he said. "You are not some glorified prisoner here. You can do whatever you want with your life. You can go back to living as a civilian or you can stay with SHIELD. We could certainly use someone of your talent and character."

Rhea looked from Fury to Coulson, who smiled at her. She shifted her weight from foot to foot.

"I can't be a civilian," she shrugged her arms. "What would I do, firefighting? And honestly, even if there was somewhere else for me to go, I still think I would I stay here."

"I'm glad to hear it," Fury said. "I'll meet with you tomorrow to lay down the ground rules and discuss just where _exactly_ you should go from here. Now, I need to be going. Coulson?"

"You go," Coulson said. "I'm going to talk with Rhea for a few minutes."

Fury nodded and let himself out. Coulson took another cookie from one of the piles.

"These are very good," he took a bite. "It's good to see you're keeping busy, at least."

"oh you know," Rhea went back to the kitchen area and started pulling the cupcakes from their pan. "gotta keep the guilt away somehow."

"Rumlow's back."

"How's he doing?" she started putting a few ingredients in a bowl.

"You should ask him that yourself. I can get you permission to go visit him."

"That's nice, Coulson, but I doubt he wants me to be dropping in on him." She attached the bowl to the mixer and whipped the ingredients into frosting.

"Why wouldn't he want to see you?" Coulson finished the cookie. Rhea turned the mixer off and sagged.

"Have you forgiven me already?" she asked Coulson.

"I think the word 'pardon' applies more to this more than forgiveness."

"No, forgiveness if the right word. Yes, what I did, I did for the right reasons but it was still the wrong thing to do. It was illegal, I broke the trust of the people around me, and Rumlow almost died because of what I did. If I had just let SHIELD handle it, he wouldn't have been there. He would have been here on suspension still."

"You say that but Rhea, he still shouldn't have been there. It was my call to let him go. I wouldn't ask you not to try and feel guilt over your actions because you should. Guilt is what you should feel if your actions were wrong. But Rumlow's injury is on me, not you."

Rhea turned to face Coulson, and rested the back of her head against the wall.

"But," she raised her hands in an almost pleading manor. "what if he blames me for it? What if he never forgives me?"

"You won't know until you try, will you?" Coulson leaned on the counter. "but I have a feeling he's not going to hold a grudge over this."

"I'm still not sure I'm ready to face him just yet."

"Well," Coulson eyed the baked treats that were taking over the apartment. "you should make the first move, but you don't have to do it in person."


	22. Chapter 22

"Your's?" Rumlow held up the empty plate. Rhea nodded and placed it on the counter. There was an excruciating moment of silence.

"so," Rhea squirmed. "How's the ol' gun shot wound treating you-?"

"Hurts like a bitch."

"yep. That's pretty much what I expected you to say…" Rhea trailed off uncomfortably. "explanation?"

"Any time," Rumlow folded his arms, his eyes boring into Rhea's.

"Well, ummm, see, I am incredibly powerful and I knew I could handle Brian and his creeps but I knew SHIELD would never let that happen, so I committed some mild espionage and went rogue and planned on disappearing forever but then you guys caught up to me a lot sooner than I anticipated and then you got shot. And Brian got away."

"see when you put it like that it almost makes it sound like this is all- not only SHIELD's fault- but my fault. Is that what you're saying?"

"no! it is not your fault that you got shot, it's Brian's fault. He was the one holding the gun after all. Also it was my fault for letting my guard down. But-"

"Oh my god!" Rumlow threw his hands up.

"SHIELD hasn't made any of this very easy."

"are you serious!?" He was almost laughing he was so in disbelief. "SHIELD hasn't made this easy? SHIELD has bent over backwards with you. We have set aside so many protocols and been incredibly lenient towards you and all you have done is make things difficult, break all the rules, and- you know they haven't spent so much on clean up since WORLD WAR TWO!"

"Half of this stuff would never have happened if SHIELD hadn't abducted me!" Rhea shouted back.

"abdu- SHIELD did not abduct you!"

"hah, really!? What do you call it then, when strange people you don't know take you away from where you were supposed to be?"

"look- AH!" Rumlow winced, his hand hovering over his bruised neck.

"You alright?" Rhea straightened up. "do you need ice?"

"Heat pack, if you have one," He said through gritted teeth.

"sit," rhea pointed to the arm chair, and he sat down in it. Rhea came and sat down on the arm by his injured side.

"What are y-?" he started.

"I am the heat pack," she placed her hands on his neck and shoulder. Rumlow felt heat begin to flow from her hands into the stiffness of his neck.

"Let me know if it gets too hot," she said. He nodded. They sat in that resigned awkward silence that often follows an argument. Then Rhea made the peace offering. "It is an impressive bruise."

Rumlow snorted.

"It's huge!" she went on. "and it's a gorgeous shade of purple."

"purple's not really my color though," Rumlow smirked. "it really washes me out."

"How do you know?" Rhea laughed. "all you ever seem to where is black. And dark green, now that I think of it."

"I dabble in grey areas."

"sex tape title, and grey's still not purple."

"some greys can be purple."

"I never realized you were so versed in color."

"My real dream was to be an artist." Rhea stared at him. "I'm kidding."

"Thought you might be about to get all soulful on me."

"nah, I don't have a soul."

"Yes you do and I love it," he gave her a shocked look. "I mean that you have a beautiful soul. I mean, you're really a great guy. Stop giving me that look or I'll burn you."

They sat for a while. Rumlow basked in the heat Rhea was giving him, and Rhea basking in embarrassment.

"so what _are_ you?" Rumlow finally asked.

"A empath space god." She looked down at his expression and shrugged. "Basically. My true name would be meaningless to you, so we'll call me the Fox. There used to be a constellation of me that you could see from earth, but the stars have all burnt out now. I needed to come to earth for a while so I needed a body-"

"you're possessing Rhea!?"

"no I am Rhea. I don't normally exist on the physical plane so I sent a piece of myself to be born into a physical body. I also sent a sacred stone to act as a conduit between my true-self and my incarnated soul piece so I could eventually start manifesting fully in this body."

"This sounds exactly like infiltration."

"It kind of was. There are some other beings out there that would not be happy about what I'm doing. One of them is actually here somewhere. That's why I came to earth, to kill them. They're somewhere on this geographical plane I know that. But as of yet I haven't been able to narrow it down further."

"you came to earth to have a giant space god battle!? How much destruction-"

"Nooo! No no no! the space god battle already happened. In space. In another dimension. But the one I'm tracking fled from me before I could utterly destroy them. It's found a host somewhere here on earth. Now it's just lying low, trying to regain its strength."

"What is it?"

"It would say it was my enemy. I call it my prey. It is much like me in the way that the devil is like God, except that while I am a creature of emotion. It is a creature of the mind. It was nothing more than a thought when it fled from me, but it has been on earth a long time now and has definitely become a full entity once more."

"Why can't you find it?" Rumlow was fascinated. If he hadn't witnessed Rhea's powers first hand on that train, he would not have believed what he was hearing. He was still rather skeptic.

"it knows I'm here. It hasn't been making any 'noise'. This creature used hosts before, on other worlds. It picks out a person that has strong mental abilities; powerful psychics, and telepaths. That sort of thing. At this point it is able to live solely through its host's energies and abilities. Not for long though. Something will push force it to come forward, or it will grow tired of laying low. When that happens, I will kill it."

"Why?" Rumlow raised his hands. "What is the feud between you?"

"it's like I said," she explained. "if I was God, it would be the devil. It's a corrupter of hearts and a destroyer of worlds. When I disappeared all those years ago, in that alley, I went to the last place I remember physically being. The last world that demon had inhabited. It was no longer there and still the people of that planet tore themselves apart for the power of "the god with wings of flame'. The name is a lot shorter in their tongue. I tried to help them but they were being lead by mad men who had tasted the Demon's power. And the entire world was destroyed. Its just a vacant lot in the cosmos now."

Rumlow thought about all this for a long time. His neck was feeling worlds better now. Finally he asked, "so when I talk to you, am I talking to Rhea or the Fox?"

She looked down into his dark eyes. "Rhea." She said.


	23. Chapter 23

After two more days under house arrest, and one more scolding session, Rhea was allowed back in training. She was escorted to and from training by large and intimidating agents. That was more for show than anything else. Fury knew now just as well as she did that those agents wouldn't be able to do crap if she attacked them. Well they _could_ crap, but it wouldn't do much good. Rumlow watched the training and did some instructions but he still wasn't able to use his left arm. Instead Androse, the knife training woman, was helping out. The next week they were in the gun range. Rhea held the gun perfectly fine but it soon became apparent that she had dreadful aim.

"You literally," Rumlow said in astonishment. " _Would not_ be able to hit the broadside of a barn."

"Well, then it's a good thing she's got… other talents," Androse defended Rhea.

"Why are you even here?" Rhea tried to huff some of her wild curls out of her face.

"This is like a game show," he smirked. "'Where will Rhea send the next bullet?' Hey maybe you can get the next one to go behind you!"

A rather powerful electric shock went between Rumlow's hand and the metal counter he was leaning against.

"Ah! Damn that hurt!" He held his palm against his chest, Rhea grinned as she took the next shot.

The next day they moved up to heavier weapons like assault rifles. Rhea was just as bad with these as with the hand guns, so the next day they were back in the gym. Rhea was shown how to disarm someone with a gun.

"So you see," said Androse. "it's much more dangerous than a knife. You have to keep your body out of the way of the bullet."

"Is it really worth spending the time teaching me something like this," Rhea wondered aloud. "when I can just blow the gun up?"

"Yes," a man's voice answered from behind.

"Mr. Secretary!" Androse and Rumlow straightened up. Rhea turned around to see an older man in a suit watching them.

"Your abilities lend you quite the edge, yes," he walked closer to them. "But it is best to be prepared for any eventuality. How do you know you will never be unable to use your abilities? In a stealth situation, you have to take out the enemy as quietly as possible. So yes it's worth it to train you in these areas."

Rhea nodded understandingly.

"Alexander Pierce," the man extended his hand.

"Rhea Jaeger," Rhea shook it.

"Yes I know," he chuckled. Gesturing to Rumlow he said, "I needed to speak with this agent and I thought I might as well come down and meet you as well."

"Well," Rhea wasn't sure what to say. "I hope I haven't caused you too much trouble."

"you have," Pierce smiled. "but I believe it will be well worth it in the end. Rumlow, walk with me."

"Yes, sir." Rumlow hopped down from the mats and followed Pierce out of the sparring room.

"Who was that?" Rhea asked Androse.

"Alexander Pierce. He was the Secretary of Defense, now he sits on the World Council. He's also one of the highest ranking SHIELD officials. In some ways he has more power than Director Fury."

"Well he seemed nice," Rhea nodded approvingly.


	24. Chapter 24

"So, Rhea Jaeger has been training for just over a month now," Pierce handed Fury a cup of coffee and sat beside him on the couch in his office. "I think she's ready for the field."

"Ready?" Fury snorted into his drink. "I know it's been a while since you been in the field-"

"I'm serious Nick," Pierce spread his hands. "I want her in the next low danger strike mission."

Fury started to argue but Pierce cut him off.

"Look, I know she hasn't mastered every skill, but her combat abilities are excellent. And we know she can do stealth, given that she snuck into that Moth base in Montana. The other skills will come with time, but I don't want to miss out on what she capable of now just because she can't shoot straight."

"And I understand that," Fury agreed. "I would like to make use of her talents as well, but when you're in the field you need to be able to shoot straight. It won't mean her life if she doesn't, but it will mean the lives of her team mates. Besides, I need to decide which team I want to pair her up with."

"What's wrong with keeping her with Rumlow?"

"No, no, no," Fury shook his head. "Those two are too involved. Agent Rumlow has made a series of poor choices during the time he has spent with that girl."

"Has he?" Pierce raised his eyebrows.

"What do you mean 'has he'?" Fury asked incredulously.

"well, Rhea got abducted," Pierce explained. "and in the hands of Moth she could have become a powerful and terrible weapon. Rumlow recognized that and did what he needed to in order to retrieve miss Jaeger and keep her powers from falling into dangerous hands. It's true he broke some rules, but he's not the first agent to bend the laws to achieve a goal."

Pierce stared pointedly at Fury.

"Now hold on-"

"And yes he was under suspension when Rhea went to Montana and he should have stayed here," Pierce went on. "But he knew that he was the greatest chance of getting through to Rhea. And he was right. We learned that she isn't some uncontrollable, unreasonable threat, and she learned that her actions had the potential to get people killed. People she cared about. That's why we need to keep these two together."

Fury sighed and rubbed his head. "I don't know."

"Look, you don't trust her yet. This next mission is a chance to prove herself to be trust worthy, and with Rumlow there to keep her in line you have extra insurance. Not to mention, I think those two could turn out to be our next dynamic duo; the next Barton and Romanov. And compared to Romanov's track record before she came to SHIELD, Jaeger's looking stellar."

Fury laughed. "I cannot argue with that." He was quiet for a moment. "Fine, fine. There's a human trafficking operation off the coast of Haiti. Rumlow's off suspension now, we'll send his team with Jaeger to shut them down."

"Thank you," Pierce clapped Fury on the back. "I have a good feeling about Jaeger."


	25. Chapter 25

The jet began its descent, shaking slightly as it hit some more turbulence. Rhea gripped the hand hold above her. The agents around her were dressed in black; black boots, black cargo pants, black shirts, black jacket, black vests, black weapons. Rhea was wearing only the boots, pants, and shirt. She had a belt around her hips that held a hand gun and a knife. The only other thing she wore was a parachute. She didn't really need it, but she already stood out like a sore thumb from the rest of the team. Rumlow came over.

"You good?" he murmured.

"Fine."

"I wish you'd wear the vest."

"I told you, bullets can't hurt me. The vest would only get in the way."

"Yeah, I just don't really want to test that."

"The only reason I'm even wearing the parachute is to make them feel more at ease around me," she jerked her head toward the rest of the team. Rumlow grimaced and moved to front of the team.

"We're nearing the drop zone, so, just to reiterate," he put his thumbs in his belt. Rhea couldn't help admiring how he looked in those fingerless gloves. "this will be a quick in out, with only a little fuss. Team one takes the south end, team two takes the north. Teams three and four follow behind and collect the civilians. Your only job is to get those people to safety. Rhea will take out the power, that's when we start to sweep. Let's try to be out in under thirty, alright?"

"Yes, sir."

The lights turned red and everyone got into position to drop. Rumlow casually made his way next to Rhea. He shot her some sideways glances as he pretended to readjust his gloves. Rhea stared straight ahead.

 _He doesn't really trust you either._

Can you blame him? He saw what you can do. He's seen the aftermath from when he was in Montana, but he's also gotten to see _you_ ; in all your explosive, electrical, fire monster glory. I'd be nervous about taking me into a mission too.

 _They should just let you go in alone. You could definitely be out of there in under thirty._

I think they want the perps alive.

 _You do need to work on that. You also need to work on precision._

Exactly there's still a risk that I might accidentally hurt the pris-

Rhea's thoughts were interrupted by the floor disappearing from under her feet. She gasped as she started to drop through the sky towards the island below. She counted to three and pulled her parachute. It blossomed out behind her like a black flower against the night. She jerked upwards and then began to fall at a much more reasonable speed. She still landed with quite a thump. She could see the shadows that were the rest of the strike team landing around her.

"Move out," Rumlow's voice came in on the ear piece. She followed the rest of team two towards the north. They moved through the warm tropical vegetation like cats. After a few minutes they came to the edge of the trees, and could see a flat, factory like building ahead. They were facing its rear where a small door should be located by a few concrete steps. The big widows were all painted black but you could still just see a glow coming from inside the building. Rumlow appeared at Rhea's shoulder.

"Teams two and four are in position," he said into the mic. After a moment the reply came through that teams one and three were in position as well. Rumlow tapped Rhea and the shoulder, "do you know where to hit the wires?"

She felt outwards, trying to ignore all the other little electrical pulses of all the living things around her. What she wanted would be stronger. She felt out farther and found the pulse of the building's electrical system. She felt everything now, and allowed a sort of map to form in her head.

"yeah," she furrowed her brow. "I see it, but…"

"What?"

"that building is a lot bigger than it looks. I goes down."

"aerial never picked up any underground levels."

"well, there's something underneath that building that's using a lot of electricity."

Rumlow studied her expression then said into the channel, "Be advised, there may be a basement level. Red is moving to the wire." And he led Rhea out of the trees into the open, towards the building. An agent named Carlos went with them. He turned as they hurried to its dark walls, keeping his rifle raised. They made it to the wall without incident. Rhea pressed her hand against the building. She was careful to feel only for electricity; she did not want to accidentally pick up the emotions of a place used for human trafficking. She found the hotspot.

"There," she pointed. Carlos took out what looked like a glass cutter and put it on the wall where she had pointed. He pressed a button in the center and a small laser went on in the arm that stuck off it. He turned this in a slow circle, turned off the laser. When he took the device from the wall, a circle of the stone went with it. Rhea put her hand through the hole and grabbed onto a bundle of thick wires. She could feel her body buzz with the electricity flowing through it. She could also feel her already unruly hair crackle and puff in its little ponytail. She turned to Rumlow.

"Got it," she said. Static lit up her mouth when she said it.

"Ready," Rumlow said into the mic. He didn't take his eyes off Rhea. As soon as she had touched the wires, her appearance had changed into that which now thought of as the fox; the slitted eyes, the dark facial markings, the fangs. He knew that her hands were now clawed, and black from the elbow down. "power going out in three, two, one."

Rhea sent a huge burst of power along the wires she was holding. The glow in the blackened widows went out.

"move in!"


	26. Chapter 26

They blew the lock off the back exit and hustled inside, switching to infrared vision. Rhea saw well enough in the dark that she didn't need the infrared, and she could feel when someone was close. Since she was possibly the world's worst shot, she had been given a taser rod instead of a gun. It seemed silly, but she was supposed to be learning how to operate without powers as well as with them. The evac teams were to wait three minutes then follow the offense teams. Rumlow lead team two through the pitch blackness of the building. The team spread out every time they came to a split in the passages. They hadn't gotten too far into the building when Rhea encountered her first guard. She could feel them looming up ahead of her. She ran forward on cat's feet past Rumlow who reached out to grab her. She slipped past him and could see the guard now. He was starting to turn in their direction. Rhea pounced like an animal, landing with all fours on his chest and rammed the rod against his neck before he could make a sound. As the guard fell back Rhea slipped off and around him, to catch him and lay him gently on the floor. The team continued on their way and Rhea fell into place next to Rumlow. He gave her a quick sideways glance, and she smirked, though he could not see it.

 _You thought I wouldn't handle that right_ , she thought.

The next guard was taken out by another member of the team. They were coming to the end of the hall. It opened onto a huge room that was as tall as the building. On one side were the blacked out windows that they had seen from the trees. There was a cat walk near the ceiling that went around the whole room. There were eight people walking around on it looking down on the room. The large space had been separated into about five different sections. There were people in each of these sections and then about eight more people who moved around freely. The rest of team two came out of a couple smaller hallways off of the one they were in and rejoined the group. Rumlow motioned with his hand and they began to steal into the large opening. They stayed low and close to the walls. Some of the team went to the left, some to the right. Rhea followed behind Rumlow as they stalked along by the left hand wall. They passed by one of the fenced off the areas. It was just a large cage for the people that lay sleeping inside it. A guard was walking parallel to them on the other side of the cage. As they reached the end of the cage, Rumlow darted out and grabbed the guard. He dragged the man back to the wall, his hand firmly over his mouth, and his arm around his throat. Rhea wrapped herself around the man's legs as he tried to kick out. After a while the struggling stopped and the man went limp. They layed him down and continued on.

They could see team one now; they had entered from the opposite end of the room and were making their way up the steps to the cat walk. Across from her Rhea could just see through the blackness as another member of her team dragged a guard away. Up on the cat walk, a guard turned around just in time to see the agent closing in on him. He cried out and let off a shot before a SHIELD bullet sent him over the rail. The rest of the guards now began to shout. Gun shots started to ring out from both sides; stealth was no longer needed. Rhea darted out into the center where a guard was taking aim at one of the agents on the cat walk. She forgot about the rod on her belt, and instead charge her hand with electricity. She slammed her palm into the man's back. There was a loud zap, a flash, and the man went flying. Then something hit Rhea's temple and she was spun around and landed on her hands and knees. She shook her head, trying to rid her vision of the bursts of lights. She staggered to her feet just in time to see another guard was now charging her down. The man was intercepted by the butt of an assault rifle. Rumlow then flipped the rifle around and shot the man in the forehead.

Teams three and four had by this time arrived and were pulling people from the large cages and leading them out of the room, and harm's way. Rumlow grabbed the weapon that the man he had just killed had been holding, and then lead Rhea back against the wall. There was large pillar and he pulled her behind it to provide some cover.

"you okay?" He had to shout a little. SHIELD used silencer's on their weapons, but the few remaining assailants' guns were loud and echoed in the open space.

"Fine, why?" she rubbed her temple and blinked.

"You just got shot in the head."

"oh... Told you I didn't need the vest..?" she shrugged.

"This gun is wrong," Rumlow held up the guard's weapon.

"What's wrong with it?" Rhea asked. The lights had stopped flashing in her head and she could only hear one more gun firing.

"Because they energy based. A small time operation like this shouldn't have weapons that advanced."

The sound of the last gun stopped. Rumlow stepped out from behind the pillar and spoke into the communication channel.

"Where are we at?"

"All threats have been neutralized; all victims are on the way out."

"Wait, did you see that?" a voice asked.

"What?"

"I thought I picked up three more with the infrared vision, but then they disappeared."

"You sure you saw i-?"

Just then there was a sound like, wumpf, and suddenly there were three more figures standing in the center of the room. Two immediately lunged at the nearest agents. There was another 'wumpf' and the third disappeared. Rhea and Rumlow charged towards the two new assailants. One was huge and looked almost to be a gorilla. That one was heading towards the cat walks where team two was. The other one wasn't much taller than Rhea but was fast, and was wielding several knives. This one was taking on several of the strike team. Rumlow made it to him first. He ducked into the fray, and delivered three blows with his fist to the man's ribcage. The man yelled and turned his full attention on Rumlow who sent him back a few feet with a kick to the chest. He then whipped out his pistol and fired right at the man's heart. The man looked down then lunged at Rumlow. Rumlow fired three more times. The man didn't even slow down.

"Shit!" he shouted and rolled sideways as the knives the man held came down at him. Rhea leapt over him and round house kicked the man in the face.

"He's got some sort of regeneration," she shouted.

"Yeah I noticed!" Rumlow yelled back.

"Let me deal with him," Rhea said ducking a swipe at her head. "Go get that other guy!"

"No!"

"Which-" she dodged again and punched her attacker in the face. "One of us is walking around after being shot in the head!?"

Rumlow got to his feet and ran towards the cat walk. The other assailant had already thrown off two agents. Rhea turned her full attention on the man she was battling. She kicked at his knee and threw her elbow into his face. She felt as three blades were plunged into her side. She spun around behind him off of the blades and twisting his arm back as she went. From behind him she brought the side of her hand and then her elbow down on his neck. He reached over his shoulder and grabbed her arm. He flipped her over his head. She managed to twist as he did so that she landed facing him. He thrust his free hand upwards under her ribs. The again felt as the triple blades pierced her. She looked down and suddenly realized that the man wasn't holding the knives, they were protruding from his hands. Rhea could hear the sounds of the skirmish with this man's ally. She leapt towards the man, pushing the blades deeper into her chest. She wrapped her legs around the man's chest and thrust her claws into neck. They were now locked together. The man tried to pull away Rhea kept them too intertwined. He called out for his companion to get down here and lend him a hand.

His companion had been facing off against Rumlow and about half of team two, but he grabbed Rumlow and leapt from the catwalk to the floor. Rhea could hear Rumlow shouting as the stranger leapt forward.

"OOoh Shiiiit!"

This second assailant came racing to pry Rhea from off his associate.

"Hold it!" she shouted. "Your friend has some impressive regenerative abilities, and I would hate to test them!"

His companion slowed in his tracks, but didn't stop.

"I will make him burn his intestines and then explode him from the inside if you don't stop right there!"

This time the stranger did stop.

"so," she huffed. (The blades in her chest were right in one of her lungs.) "this doesn't seem like the sort of situation to handle in the dark. How about a little light?"

A low flame covered her body and lit up a good section of the large room. She looked at the man she was currently being impaled on. He had wild black hair and some impressive side burns. His companion looked like a cross between a gorilla and a lion, except that he was totally blue and wore glasses. Rhea looked at the two men and said, "And I thought I had bad hair."


	27. Chapter 27

"Now," Rhea wheezed at the black haired man. "I am going to take my claws out of your neck, and get down from off of you. Then I'm going to need you to take your blades out of my lungs, and you and your friend over there to be really still and calm so my friends don't shoot you. Okay?"

Rhea untangled herself from the man and he extracted the three long blades from her. The strike team circled in around the two men, their guns aimed to kill. Several of the team were ordering the two men to get on the ground and drop the weapons. Rhea, still alight, faced her teammates with her hands up.

"Hold on, hold on," she said. "I think it's a mistake. We're here for the same reason."

"get out of the way or I'll shoot you too," one of them said.

"you bastard!" Rhea was sure she could deal with any more of this right now; her head hurt and she was starting to feel a little nauseated. She had just had to do some serious regeneration and it had lowered her empathic defenses. Now the oppressive atmosphere of the place (along with her teammates high emotions) was starting to get to her

"HEY!" someone barked. They looked to see Rumlow, assisted by one of the men, walking towards them. He let go of the man helping, "Enough!" He snatched the gun away from one of the men nearest him and limped over to the blue hairy man.

"Get on the fucking ground," he aimed the gun right at his head. "Hands above your head. You too, scissor-hands, or I shoot your friend here in the head."

Rhea took a few steps back. She realized she hadn't actually seen the business side of Rumlow before now. It was quite starling. The two companions exchanged glances then slowly got on their knees.

"Now," Rumlow shifted his hold on the rifle. "Who are you, and why are you here?" The man with the knife hands clenched his jaw, and did not look at Rumlow. The blue one however sighed and answered the question.

"This Logan and my name is Hank McCoy."

"Dammit, Hank!"

"Logan, you can't brood your way out of every situation! Besides, I think that burning girl is right. I think we've made a mistake." Hank turned back to Rumlow. "We're here because two kids who… are… like us, went missing. We were able to trace them this far. When we saw your team we assumed this must have been another Moth operation."

"Moth!?" the flame blinked out on Rhea and the blackness fell over the scene. There was a cry of surprise and the little flashlights on the team's helmets started flickering on.

"How do you know about Moth!?" she demanded. "no. dumb question. What do you know of Moth!? Why are they even called Moth? Do you know where any of their bases are?"

"Rhea," Rumlow warned.

"Have they approached you too?"

"Rhea! Enough! Also, would you bring the light back please?"

"But-!"

"Jaeger!"

Rhea, glared at Rumlow, then sighed and let the low flame come back over her body.

"I see you have had some experience with that group as well," Hank raised an eyebrow.

"We've met, yeah," Rumlow grimaced.

"Then you know that they are very interested in finding people with unusual abilities. They had approached those two children before, under the guise of operating as a special training program. When the kids then disappeared we were fairly certain that it was Moth who had abducted them."

"But this facility has no ties to Moth."

"No, which was a relief because that meant it would be a lot easier to get them back. But then we found you, a bunch of highly trained, well equipped men in a facility that has apparently kidnapped some rather special children. So we figured this actually _was_ a Moth operation and attacked. So that's us. What about you?"

"we're government," Rumlow said. "we're here to shut down this trafficking operation."

"Do you mind if we see the people you just got out of here? We need to find these kids."

"Why? Why do you even know about them? How do I know _you're_ not Moth, and you aren't actually here to get the kids from these traffickers?"

"They're not," Rhea cut in. she was trying to rub the pain from her head. "at least I really doubt it. I'm getting nothing but a feeling of earnestness and concern from the blue one. Sorry, from Hank."

"Do you posses telepathic abilities as well?" Hank adjusted his glasses and stared at Rhea in fascination.

"Ugh," she grimaced, smoothing the front of shirt. "please, don't be insulting. I'm an empath."

"Sorry, Rhea but I can't risk a security breach because you have a feeling about these two," Rumlow said.

"Even though something is definitely off about this situation?" she challenged. "What were those two kids' powers?"

"one could phase through things, the other had ice related abilities," Hank answered.

"see, I mean, I don't know much about the ice powers but that kid probably could have just frozen his attackers. The other kid could just phase away from them. So how did a small time trafficking operation like this one managed to abduct two super powered kids? Two super powered kids who had both already been approached by Moth. And you said yourself those goons' guns were too advanced, right? And I told you when I shut the power off that there was a lower level to this building. By the way, I checked in on that before we entered this room and there is a large space bellow us that still has power."

"And when were you planning on letting me know!?"

"When we'd finished shooting all the bad guys. But look, wouldn't a small time trafficking post be a great cover for a secret small time Moth operation- especially if they're abducting super natural people? And you would give the traffickers weapons that were at least a little better than normal, right?" O _h god I feel sick,_ she thought.

"Then why didn't aerial pick up any sublevels."

"I can think of a couple ways they could have hid it from you," the man called Logan growled.

"We covered this whole building," one of the strike members piped in. "And we didn't find any entrances to any underground levels."

"The entrance might not actually be inside the building," a strike member near Rhea countered. "Just because the lab- or whatever it might be- is under this building doesn't mean the entrance has to be in this building too."

"If there is a secret Moth operation here," Hank said to Rumlow. "Then we need to find it and rescue those kids, and anyone else down there."

Rumlow stared at the two men kneeling before him. He looked at Rhea.

"Could you find the entrance?" he nodded at her.

"Not if it isn't using electricity," she spread her burning hands apologetically, and swayed a little. Rumlow raised an inquisitive eyebrow but turned back to the two companions.

"What about you two? You have any superpowers that could help us find this entrance?- _if_ it even exists."

"I got a pretty good sense of smell," Logan cocked his head.

"How good?"

"Should I tell you what you had for lunch?"

"So, damn good," Rumlow turned to the man who threatened to shoot Rhea. "Rollins, I need you head back to the rendezvous. Get those victims out of here, update HQ on our situation. Luckily we already had transports off of this island so we're probably good there. Go."

Rollins really looked like he wanted to argue, but he turned and hustled away out of the room. Rumlow reached down and helped pull hank to his feet. Logan got up on his own. Rumlow went over to Rhea who was clutching her stomach. He got as close as he good with the heat coming from her.

"what is it?"

"feeling a little ill. It's this place; bad vibes. I'll be fine though, and we have more important issues."

"Speaking of which, are you sure you can't just get us down into that sublevel from here?" he muttered. "You tore that train up like it was nothing."

She raised her eyebrows. "Yes, and it was shit show of destruction. I do that here and I'll destroy this place and probably the underground level too; with everyone that's in it. I'm pretty sure SHIELD wanted to avoid that kind of thing from now on."

"Right, " Rumlow turned back to the rest of the people in the room. "Hank, you'll search the east and south areas of the island with team one. Me and my team will escort Logan and search the north and west areas. Understood?"

"Yes sir!"

"Head out."


	28. Chapter 28

_[...The man known as Logan was in fact able to sniff out an entrance to a sub-level. With the assistance of Hank McCoy we entered into a passage that lead down to a large strong door. The men were again separated into an offensive group and a rescue team. At this time I was beginning to get rather worried about SHIELD honorary agent Rhea Jaeger, who seemed to be getting more and more ill. She (with the help of McCoy) was able to get us through the door. Inside was a large area divided up into offices that doubled as living quarters. We swept through this, a kitchen area, and a shower room, and apprehended three Moth personnel. At the end of this living area was another security door that opened up on an elevator. This lead down to a secondary level. The doors of the elevator opened up to reveal a laboratory full of "subjects" and "scientists". As soon as we entered, Jaeger began to vomit violently and had to retreat. My men took out four of the Moth scientists and restrained five more. One of the last subjects we rescued was a boy (one of the two children Logan and McCoy had come to rescue.) In the very back of the laboratory was what appeared to be a huge metal safe. The boy, Bobby Drake, informed us that there was another boy that was kept locked up in there. I inquired if this was because the boy was dangerous. Drake said "No, he and I are friends but he can't control his telepathy so they locked him in there for his own good, and to stop the headaches we were all having." I told Agents Brown and Greenfield to escort Drake up to the surface along with Logan and McCoy, and ordered the rest of the men to stand back, and not to enter the box unless I instructed them to do so. I used my taser-rod to short out the key panel and the door swung open. As I entered, it closed on its own as well. Inside there was another scientist, leaning over a boy. The scientist turned and came towards me, something in her hand. I fired my gun once and made a clean head shot. She had turned out to be holding an empty syringe. She seemed to have just injected the boy with something, as he was convulsing and frothing at the mouth. I carried him out and Agents Likinn and Ombawa and I tried to resuscitate him, but it was to no avail. …]_

"You say in your report that the alleged telepathic boy was murdered by Moth upon your arrival," Fury said aloud.

"Yes, sir." Rumlow stared straight ahead. "I imagine that if the child was telepathic, the Moth personnel would not want him telling us all that he had learned from reading their thoughts."

"No, I imagine not," Fury sighed. "which is a shame. He was not the only 'subject' you report as having died, though."

"No, sir. Unfortunately some of the experimentation that was being done on those children was so severe that two died in transit, three were dead upon our arrival, and two more could clearly not have been moved without killing them, let alone survive in their current condition much longer."

"I certainly got that impression from the forensics report," Fury flipped open another file and grimaced slightly at the photos.

"Still, there were ten 'subjects' rescued that didn't die and yet we somehow ended up with only four of them in our custody."

Rumlow did not meet that burning stare.

"Unfortunately the two men, McCoy and Logan, had at least one more associate wh-"

"Who can apparently teleport and snatched, not only his two companions but more than half of the rescued 'subjects' from right under a SHIELD strike team's nose!"

"...yes..sir." Rumlow looked a little uncomfortable.

"And Jaeger was conveniently incapable of lending a super powered hand!"

"She was quite ill sir, she had to receive medical attention herself. And to be quite honest sir, I'm not sure she could have done too much to stop the teleporter even at her full health."

"Which brings us to the another point of interest," Fury leaned forward on his desk. "How was Jaeger's performance?"

…...

"I heard you weren't feeling too well," Coulson put down the ginger ale and some medicine.

"I'm definitely feeling much better than I was." Rhea sat on her couch, wrapped in a quilt. "Oh god, Coulson, I thought I was going to die!"

"What was it?"

"It was just the emotional energy of that place," Rhea shrugged, then wiped a tear off her cheek. "They were cages. A lot of them were practically naked. I could feel the trauma of what had been done to them. And then when we went into that lab..."

Coulson sat down next to her, leaning forward, his hands clasped in front of him.

"Sometimes," he said carefully. "With this job you have to deal with some pretty heavy stuff. It will often bring you up close and personal with the dark side of humanity. The real skill isn't the combat or the espionage, or even the scientific discoveries. It's learning how to walk through all the darkness without becoming dark yourself."

"You seem to a pretty good job at it," Rhea smiled tearily at him.

"No, I have my low moments just like everyone else."

"I'm worried," Rhea stared forward, her brow suddenly furrowed. "About Rumlow. I wonder how much of that darkness he already carries in him."

"Well, sometimes this job will also asked you to do some dark things. Sometimes you have to kill people. But I think no matter how dark the path he goes down might seem, he'll always be able to climb back out when there's someone who shines as brightly as you around him." Coulson gave her a fatherly smile.

"Coulson," Rhea smiled back. "That was _really_ cheesy."

"But true."

"It like, actually kind of hurt a little."

"It was touching."

"so cheesy."


	29. Chapter 29

Rumlow went to see Rhea that night as well. Part of him did not want to. Somewhere in the back of his mind a voice was hissing, _"She'll know. She look at your face and she'll know the truth."_ It was late when he knocked on her door, and when it wasn't opened he let out a metal breath and turned to leave. Then he heard the latch sliding back and the door creak open. He closed his eyes.

"Rumlow?"

"Hi, Rhea," he turned around to face her. He stuck his hand into his pocket and ran the other through his hair. "Hey."

"Hey," she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, I was just thinking I should stop by and see if you were feeling better on my way back. Are you?"

"oh, yeah." She smiled at him. "just about back to usual plucky self. You?"

"I'm fine. Yeah."

The two liars stood awkwardly for a moment.

"Do you wanna come in for a minute or two?" Rhea opened the door a little farther.

"Sure." Rumlow shrugged and entered. Rhea gestured to sofa as she closed the door.

"Sorry I look like a bit of mess, all sweat pants and tangled hair," she said as she settled into an arm chair.

"please," Rumlow scoffed. "You always look fine."

A few sparks flickered over Rhea's skin as she tried not to blush. There was another awkward silence as they both tried to think of something to say.

"so..." Rhea asked. "How was the debriefing?"

"Not great, but at least no one's in any real trouble this time."

"Are they going to start investigating those men? Hank and Logan?"

"I'm sure there are people looking into it as we speak. Especially considering that they just took a bunch of people who should have been under the care and custody of SHIELD."

"Which reminds me," Rhea sat up a little straighter. "Did the kids you save have any more information on Moth?"

"They were able to offer a few details. Nothing really solid. The only one that probably knew anything truly worthwhile never got the chance to say anything."

"You know," Rhea sensed something troubling Rumlow as he had spoken. "That telepathic kid, his death wasn't your fault."

"I know," Rumlow said softly. "Your mind likes to say, 'if only you had done something a little different', but you just have to ignore it. Do you think," a thought seemed to occur to Rumlow. "That that boy might have been the host for the demon thing you're after?"

Rhea turned to look out the widow at the night.

"No," she sighed. "That monster would never let itself experience something so humbling. Also if its host being killed, it would have tried to jump hosts."

"oh. Can you do that?"

"No, I'm not hiding in a body like some virus, I actually am this body. Sometimes I wish I wasn't" she looked back out the window.

"Are you alright?"

"Probably. Everyone else survives so I probably will too. Ever since I reconnected with my higher-self, and I was able to remember the infinite truths, remember existence outside the physical realm... I've been in agony. There's a reason humans forget certain things when they are born."

Rumlow wasn't sure what to say.

"Imagine that you were living life and suddenly remembered that you didn't belong somewhere but couldn't get back to your real home. Or that you used to be able to fly, but now you can't. Or realizing that the world you loved, is actually a prison to keep from the real world. Imagine that."

"I think that would be a pretty rude awakening."

"No kidding," Rhea snorted. "I just want to find my enemy and leave this world."

"You mean... die?" Rumlow felt a jolt in his stomach. "You're going to die when you find this space demon thing!?"

"Why not? Why should I keep having to live this way?" Rhea met his eyes. "Do I have a reason to stay?"

Rumlow looked at those bright blue eyes peering out of the pale milk chocolate skin, to her wild firey hair. It wasn't just a retort, she was truly asking him for an answer. Did she have a reason to stay? He opened his mouth to answer but what came out was, "I think you'd break Coulson's heart."

"Yeah," Rhea smiled. "I'd miss him too." She stood up, and Rumlow did as well.

"By the way," she said as she lead him to the door. "You haven't talked with Coulson or anyone about what the whole, here-to-kill-my-enemy thing have you?"

"No," Rumlow walked out into the hall then turned to face Rhea. "Why?"

"Because..." she fidgeted. "I only told you that particular part."

"Why?" Rumlow was genuinely taken aback.

"I thought it might be a bit much to tell Fury all at once, what with me trying to gain SHIELD's trust and everything. And because, I trust you."

Rumlow blinked.

"Well," Rhea shrugged and half smiled. "Thanks for coming to see me. Night."

"Night."

…...

Rumlow entered the giant metal container. The door shut behind him with a heavy sound. His mind immediately seemed to cloud a little. Inside this metal room was the same tools of experimentation as outside. A woman in a lab coat grabbed a syringe and made to attack him. He fired his gun and hit her in the forehead. He heard a cry of terror and the thoughts of terror and panic rose up in his mind. He began to recall frightening childhood memories and the word killer kept flashing in his brain. He shook his head as if to clear his ears of water. A boy of about fourteen was huddled on the crude medical bed. He was as filthy and emaciated as the others. He had even more of a wild look in his eyes though. It was a look Rumlow recognized. It was the looked of those confined to seclusion, the look of someone who has only had their demons for company.

"It's alright," Rumlow hosltered his gun, and extended a calming hand. "We're here to get you out, okay?"

The thoughts of panic began to leave Rumlow's mind. The kid relaxed a little and slid off the bed.

"Is Bobby okay?" the boy slid off the bed.

"Bobby-?"

An image rose up in front of Rumlow's eyes. It was the kid that had had the ice patches all over him; the one that had told them about this telepathic child.

"Yeah that's him!" the teen said excitedly.

Rumlow's mind now seemed to fill with the idea that everything was going to be okay.

"We're really getting out of here?"

"yes, you are. Can you tell me your name?"

"I'm Jashua Hydra. I mean, I'm Jashua and your Hydra. I mean... I'm sorry, I get people's thoughts mixed up with mine sometimes."

Rumlow's expression was frozen.

"No," he said. "I'm Agent Rumlow."

"yeah with Hyd-," Jashua stopped mid sentence. Panic once again began to fill Rumlow's thoughts. Thoughts of death, thoughts of Bobby, thoughts of despair.

"Rumlow looked around the the little room and walked over to a tray of bottles. They were filled with various chemicals, a few of which Rumlow recognized.

Jashua backed away. It was as if a siren was beginning to sound in Rumlow's ears. He gritted his teeth against the intruding fear, and tried to stop thinking about when he had felt such fear himself.

"No please," Jashua said. "Don't! Don't kill me! I won't tell them! I won't tell anyone!"

You wouldn't have to, Rumlow thought as he took the syringe from the dead woman's hand and stuck into one of the chemicals. As long as this kid could think about it, people would know.

"No!"Jashua yelled. "I won't think about it! I won't think about anything! I won't come out of this room!" he started to bargain. "I'll just stay here, I'll leave after everyone's gone! Please!"

The sound of screaming was so loud in Rumlow's head now it was almost blinding. The face of the monster from his past kept flittering in front of his eyes, making him seize up a little. He walked towards the wide-eyed Jashua, holding the filled syringe.

"Noooo!" Jashua screamed, trying to flatten his bony frame farther into the wall. Rumlow felt Jashua searching through his mind, looking for some hope of mercy.

"What about Rhea!?" he yelped.

Those blue eyes flashed across Rumlow's mind. And there was a small twinge in his heart, but still he reached out and grabbed the side of Jashua's head.

"Shhhhhh," he soothed through the screaming in his head. He jabbed the needle into the boy's neck and emptied it's toxic contents.

"Nooooooo!" Jashua screamed. His frail arms pushed against Rumlow's strong frame. A memory rose through the sirens in Rumlow's brain. Rumlow gasped and stared back into the frightened face before him. Jashua began to choke and sink to the floor. Rumlow removed the syringe from the boy's next but kept his hold on him.

"Shhhhh," he said again, laying the boy's head one the cold floor. Jashua began to convulse, and froth a little at the mouth. As Rumlow put the syringe back in the hand of the dead woman, the screaming began to die down in Rumlow's head. A few feeble thoughts went through. They were thoughts of fear, of the boy Bobby, of pain, and of despair. Rumlow scooped the dying boy into his arms and pushed against the door, of the metal prison. It opened and he rushed out.

"QUICK!" he shouted to his men that were waiting. "He's been poisoned!" Rumlow lay the boy on the floor of the laboratory. Jashua looked up at him, tears rolling into his hair, then his gaze went to the ceiling.

Why..?

Rumlow felt the last thought pass quietly through his mind, then the light left Jashua's eyes. The screaming was gone now, and Rumlow's brain began to settle back down. He followed his men in trying to resuscitate the boy, but of course, it was no use.

"sir," one of his men said cautiously. They had declared Jashua dead and his body was being taken from off the floor.

"yes?"

"are you okay? You're crying."

"what!?" Rumlow wiped his face. His glove came away damp. "oh. Wow, I guess I felt that poor kids fear more than I thought."

"That was weird," the agent agreed. "it was like someone screaming in the distance, but in my head."

"Yeah. Pretty unnerving," he said, trying to push that face back down into the forgotten parts of his mind.


	30. Chapter 30

Rhea started meeting Rumlow for training a couple days later. There was no sign of seriousness between them. Things were just as they usually were. Androse joined them occasionally in the gymn. Rhea liked Androse, she was quiet and pleasant. And though you wouldn't think it to look at her, she was shockingly girly. Her and Rhea were often giggling behind their hands together- much to the annoyance of Rumlow. He seemed to be getting a little irritated by Androse's presence, which confused Rhea since the two had seemed like friends.

Androse and Rhea were chatting by the gymn wall on this particular day. Androse was telling her something about a man that had been discovered frozen in the arctic or something like that. Rumlow swung his towel over his shoulder and stalked over to them.

"Are we working out or are we socializing?" he asked.

"Who said we can't do both?" Androse smirked.

"Don't you have a mission you could be on?" Rumlow snapped.

"Don't _you_ have one you could be fucking up?" Androse put her hand on her hip. The air was suddenly thick with anger and embarrassment. Rhea was staring wide eyed at the mat, blushing furiously. She tried to hide her burning hands behind her back. After all, most of Rumlow's recent "fuck ups" largely involved her.

"Well actually," she coughed, carefully maintaining her neutrality. "I need to get out of here. I was supposed to meet Coulson later soooo, I'm going to hit the showers."

She scooched away from the two Agents.

"Guess we'll call it a day then," Rumlow glared at Androse before he turned on his heel and headed towards the men's shower room. Androse followed after Rhea.

"Can you believe that guy!?" she said as they stripped down. "He so anal. 'Are we training or are we talking?'" She imitated Rumlow's voice and stepped into the shower.

"I can see why though," Rhea stepped into the shower next to her friend. "SHIELD is pretty much his whole life."

"Yeah I guess," Androse raised her voice over the running water. "Still it would be a lot more obnoxious if he wasn't such a gorgeous hunk."

Rhea inhaled a bit of water. She choked silently against the stall wall.

"I mean," she giggled. "Seriously, you can't tell me you wouldn't love to ride that mother fucker into the sunset if you got the chance."

Rhea was coughing in earnest now, and there was an extraordinary amount of steam rising out of her shower stall.

"Rhea?" called Androse. "Rhea, you okay?"


	31. Chapter 31

"Hey, Coulson," Rhea waved and sat down at the little cafe table.

"Hello," he smiled at her. "How have you been?"

"Much better! Been doing some training."

"Seeing quite a lot of Agent Rumlow then," he smirked.

"What?" Rhea sat a little more rigidly. "Why-why would you say that? I mean, yes but not-" she caught the gleam in Coulson's eye and blushed. "Stop that."

"I just assumed you would continue training together. Which is good. You two seem to work rather well together."

"Yeah..."

"So, anything else happen?" Coulson kindly changed the subject.

"Not really. Oh!" she remebered. "Sarah Androse and I were talking today and she said that there's a rumor going around that SHIELD found a frozen man."

Coulson sighed. "That was faster than I expected."

"What was?"

"The leak."

"A leak!?" Rhea looked surprise. "SHIELD is an espionage organization! They can't have top secret information just being leaked out-!"

"It's alright," Coulson waved his hand. "It wasn't top secret. Just secret. I had a feeling this one might get talked about though. It's pretty exciting. I was certainly beside myself with excitement when I found out."

Rhea raised an eye brow. "what, did you like, actually grin?"

"what are you implying?" Coulson asked with his usual unreadable pleasant expression.

"nothing. I just didn't know you were programmed to feel something as strong as excitement."

Coulson picked up his phone and began tapping the screen. "How does an assignment to Pakistan sound?"

"So, I'll pay for this then shall I?" Rhea offered quickly as the waitress came over.

The two of them placed their orders and went back to chatting. Later as they were eating their sandwiches Rhea looked out at the street and noticed something seemed to be missing.

"Where's Lola?" she asked, and took a bite. Coulson gave her a scornful look.

"You don't think I drive Lola just anywhere, do you?"

"If I had a car like that, I'd find every excuse to drive it." Rhea thought for a moment as she chewed. "of course, first I need to learn how to drive again."

"You never learned?" Coulson was concerned. "You didn't take driver's ed in high school?"

"I did. And I got my permit, but that was it. It's been..." she calculated. "seventeen years since I last drove a car."

"Well," Coulson opened his phone again. "We'll have to fix that. I've got some free time this weekend. We're gonna teach you how to drive."

"In Lola!?" Rhea gasped excitedly.

She had never seen Coulson laugh outright like that.


	32. Chapter 32

Nurses were hurrying past in the hospital hallway. Rhea was pacing anxiously, biting on her thumb. She was so anxious she kept having tiny shocks of electricity fly off her and hit the lights and chair legs. Her hair was practically sticking straight up. He was probably fine, she was telling herself. It hadn't seemed that bad. The doctor finally came stepped out from behind the curtain and walked towards.

"How is he?" she waylayed him.

"He's fine. A minor concussion and a mild sprain," he reassured. "you know you didn't have to wait out here. You could have been with him."

"he might be a little mad at me."

…...

Two hours earlier, Coulson had met Rhea outside her apartment building. He was standing by small silver car when she came out. He opened the driver's side door for her. When they were inside and buckled he said, "I think it's best if we just drive slowly around your neighborhood for now. Let's see what you remember."

They went jerkily around the block at about fifteen miles per hour.

"Okay," Coulson contemplated as Rhea jerked the car to halt outside her apartment building. "so, you don't really remember anything. That's fine. That's why we're doing this. With this car."

They spent the next forty minutes just driving around Rhea's street.

"Okay," Coulson would say. "Now gently start to press the brake. Better."

Eventually the honking stopped making her nervous and Rhea became confident enough to speed up to twenty five miles an hour. As her driving smoothed out, her and Coulson began to chat about things other than driving technique.

"So," she asked. "whats the deal with the frozen guy."

"I'm not really at liberty to discuss that."

"I thought that information had already become public knowledge though."

"No, the rumor that we simply found a frozen man is what is public. And it's only public within the confines of SHIELD HQ. We'd like to keep it that way."

"aw," Rhea frowned.

"Besides, you have enough to focus on. Likethatstopsign!"

"relax I see it!" she stopped the car.

"You should start slowing down a little sooner."

"sorry."

"You're doing really good, though," Coulson complimented her. "I think we should try going through the light that's a couple blocks down that way."

"oooo a challenge," Rhea grinned. "i got this!"

As they were driving to the light Coulson asked, "So you seem to have made a new friend with Agent Androse, but have you thought about boyfriends?"

"HA! Hahahaha!" Rhea laughed somewhat manically. "Yeah, let me get right on that. My options are pretty limited."

"I thought you and Rumlow were hitting it off nicely."

"Hey look at that building!" she looked up at a tall white marble structure. "I've always liked that building-"

"RHEA!" Coulson flung his arm out. Rhea snapped her head frontwards, saw the pedestrian, screamed, and tried to hit the breaks. She hit the gas first. There was the screeching sound of the tires, multiple shouts, and a sound like "WHUNK" as the pedestrian was slammed against the car and then hit the ground.

"WHAT DO I DO?" Rhea shrieked. She was sitting rigid with fear, her knuckles gripping the steering wheel so hard they were white.

"Put it in park!" Coulson said urgently. She fumbled as she obeyed the command. She then leapt from the car and ran to the front. A groaning man lay on his back on the pavement, holding his head.

"BUNNY!" she screamed. Coulson was leaning down beside her now. She looked up at him desperate and sobbing.

"Coulson! I hit Rumlow with the car!" she wailed.

…...

Rhea skulked around one of the curtains. Rumlow was sitting on the bed having his wrist bandaged by a nurse, his other hand was holding an ice pack to his head

"so," she scuffed the toe of her shoe on the floor. "the doctor said it wasn't bad."

"Rhea," Rumlow didn't look at her. "I love you, but you hospitalizing me cannot be our thing."

"I'm soooooo sorry!" she wailed.

"Alright," the nurse said. "That's all set. Like the doctor said, just give it another half hour then you can have a friend drive you home."

she smiled at Rhea and left to attend other patients.

Rumlow sighed to himself, "I don't think any of the people I know that well have cars."

"I'll drive you," Rhea smirked.

Rumlow glared at her, but the corners of his mouth twitched. She hopped up next to him and reached for the ice pack.

"Let me-"

"I got it."

"Bunny, let me hold that. It's the least I can do."

He let out frustrated sigh but let her take the ice pack from him.

"You should have been watching the road."

"I know, I'm really sorry."

"..."

"..."

"do you even have a license?"

"No, Coulson was teaching me how to drive again."

"..."

"..."

"Did you used to know?"

"When I was in High School I learned. But it's... been awhile."

"yeah."

Rhea shifted.

"Hey," she said. "At least this time it was just some minor injuries. Shows things are deescalating. Next time you'll just need a band-aide."

He luaghed, "Let's try not to even have a next time."

"I wasn't trying for there to be a first time."

"so if getting shot in the neck got me baked goods, does getting hit with a car only get me this ice pack?"

"if it was a first time offense maybe," Rhea smiled. "But considering this is a repeat offense, how about a night out?"

"...that sounds nice."

…...

Rhea was enjoying her time after the mission she had just been on. She knew, however that it wouldn't last. It was just a matter of time before she would have to face her enemy once more. Ever since they had found that laboratory, she could feel Moth looming, like a shadow, closing in. The only question was which would be first; would Moth come again, or would it be SHIELD's move that brought her face to face with Brian Loomis again? She had been honing her skills in private.

She had bought a lot of little potted plants. She would reach out with her energy, and feel the energy of one of the plants. Then she would send out a bolt of electricity and fry the thing. She couldn't help feeling bad for the poor plants, and always asked for their permission before she brought them home to be her test subjects. She was working on another similar trick that was proving to be rather more difficult.

When she had stormed the Moth base in Montana, she had been able to use the heat the enemies guns to create explosions. She could also burn things from the inside out, however, exploding someone from the inside was proving more difficult. To be more specific, she was attempting to create explosions on as small as a cellular level. That way she could take out an opponent from without ever getting close to them, and possibly without killing them. She couldn't figure out why it was so much trickier than just burning things. Obviously the guns would have been easier. Even when stone cold, guns are just explosions waiting to happen. Humans and other life forms were rather more... damp. But if she could get this down, she could avoid putting more of the people around her in danger. If she could get this, she could kill Brian Loomis.

She sat in her bedroom, feeling the energy of the plant in front of her; feeling its heat, its pulse. Now she just had to spark th-

"Wait!" Rhea's eye's snapped open. "DID HE SAY HE LOVED ME!?"

The plant exploded.


	33. Chapter 33

S _ORRY IT'S BEEN SO LONG!_

 _been working on my actual non fanfic stories. butvascreparation for being gone for the past few months, i made some more art for the series._

 _you can find it on the deviantart page (for-any-fans . deviantart . c o m)_

...

...

...

Rhea was once again pacing back and forth in front of Coulson's desk.

"This is getting ridiculous," she stared at the carpet as she paced.

"Yes," Coulson agreed.

"I mean I'm like,'eeehrehh,' and he's like, 'mayyyybeee?' and even I'm kind of starting to think

'Oh, would you just kiss him already!?'"

"Seriously."

"And I shot him in the neck! Well, I didn't but I'm the reason he got shot in the neck."

"One could definitely argue that."

"And he still talks to me, he still visits and trains with me."

"And she's not actually listening to anything I say," Coulson sighed.

"And then I hit him with a car. And he still is talking to me, so I feel like it's safe to say he likes

me. After all we did end up basically agreeing to a date when we were in the hospital."

"And if they don't get together soon I'm going to have a find a new power couple," Coulson

mused to himself. "And ClinTasha is out of the question. The Clin half is married."

"So yeah, yeah, you know what I'm just gonna do it. I'm gonna ask him out. Screw my fears!"

"But then, if the dethaw goes well, we could have the captain. Lot of potential power couples

there. Maybe even…" he looked skeptically at Rhea. Just then she turned to face him.

"I mean, so what if I'm basically immortal and already destined to outlive him?"

"The Captain?" Coulson momentarily forgetting what she was talking about.

"And so what if his profession is one where retirement plans aren't a huge concern?" she asked

defiantly. Then realized what Coulson had just said. "Wait, Captain? Captain who?"

"Eh, nevermind."

"Honestly, I'd rather have only a few years of happiness than to live alone out of fear!"

"That's very wise," he said agreed.

"So," Rhea grinned (a little nervously.) "if you'll excuse me, I've a gotta go ask some asshole out

on a date." She turned on her heel and marched out of the office.

"Glad I could help." Coulson called after her. He sat in thought for a while. "Captain Widow?

Maybe? Romanogers? ...Stasha."

….

Rumlow was, of course, at the gym, but he had just been going in when Rhea found him.

"Hey," he smiled. "I didn't know you were planning to come today."

"Oh, no," Rhea laughed and gestured to her clothes. "I'm not. I just was trying to find you."

"Oh?" Rumlow set down his gym bag. "What's up?"

"Well, first of all, are you alright? You seem… tired. And stressed. Also do you have any plans

tonight?"

"Wha- oh, nah I'm fine. Not getting enough sleep is all. And no, no plans. Just a book I've been

reading." It was a lie. Rumlow had started spending as much time as possible in the gym. The

exercise helped him to forget the memories that had started to haunt him again, and Rumlow

was desperate to once again repress them. He wished he could erase them forever, erase that

man's face from his mind, or better yet from existence.

"Well, if you're cool with putting that book off till tomorrow," Rhea pushed her bushy hair from

her eyes. "Then I could make good on that promise and take you to dinner tonight."

Rumlow opened his mouth and his heart tried to jump out. He shut it quickly and tried again.

"Uh- yeah," he said. "Yeah I guess… yeah, that'd be great."

"Awesome!" Rhea tried not to grin quite so wide. "Well then, if you would care to meet me at the

Grey Oxen at 7, it's date."

"Absolutely!" he stammered. "You just want to meet up there?"

"Yep."

"Well, great!"

"Alright, I'll see you at 7. In the meantime, enjoy your workout." She turned and walked away.

Rumlow entered the gym feeling rather light headed. He didn't even notice he was smiling for

several minutes.

….

Rhea practically skipped home, she was halfway there when she realized she didn't have

anything to wear. There hadn't been much time for clothes shopping since she moved to DC

and she had mostly ended up needing exercise wear. She whipped out her cell phone.

"Androse?" she said. "We have an emergency!"

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	34. Chapter 34

The face staring back at him from the mirror looked tired. Rumlow was used to not getting much sleep, that was not such a big deal. This was more than that though. He had been plagued by nightmares since that kid had got in his head. Every time he fell asleep his nightmare was waiting for him. He was suddenly a child again staring at that stuffed dog. So he had stopped sleeping. He wasn't just tired, he was haunted. He splashed some cold water over his face, trying to wash away the pain. He needed to snap out of it. He couldn't ruin this night. He did his hair and then continued getting dressed. He had opted for dress-casual with a nice button up and his good leather jacket along with a his good pair of jeans and some dress shoes. As he was usually busy with his SHIELD work and other… related work, he didn't have too many options. But he kept a few nice items around just in case. As he buttoned his shirt he looked into his reflection.

"You're fine," he muttered to himself. "You're not that kid, and you're fine. You're going to go out and have a great time with a beautiful woman and you're not going to think about this anymore."

He took a deep breath and headed out.

…...

The Grey Oxen was only a few blocks away, and didn't take very long at all to get to. It was just barely seven when he stepped inside. He pulled out his phone wondering if he should text Rhea when he got a glimpse of ginger curls through the gaggle of people at the bar. A few of the patrons moved to a table and she came into full view. Rumlow felt the air leave his body. She was gorgeous! The green velvet dress she wore fitted her like a glove and only seemed to emphasize her chocolaty caramel tones in her skin. She had done her best to pull her mane of curls back but here and there a tendril fell softly.  
Rhea turned around and saw him. She smiled and blushed. If Rumlow hadn't been in love her before, he felt sure he was now. He walked towards her.  
"You look good, Bunny," she smoothed one of the lapels on his jacket.  
"You're not bad yourself," he laughed, still star struck.

"Should we grab a table?"

"Please."

They headed over towards one of the high tables ordered a couple drinks and an appetizer. Rhea couldn't believe how certain of herself she felt. She had expected to be too nervous to know what to do with her hands, but she was totally calm. Rumlow was the nervous one; she could feel his tension.

"So, how's your wrist?" she nodded at the ace bandage on his arm.

"Oh," Rumlow laughed, relieved he didn't need to start the conversation. "It's not bad, just gotta try and stay off it. Definitely had worse."

"Yeah…" Rhea grimaced and looked away. "Again, sorry about that."

"No, oh, no, I didn't mean- well I mean that was bad but I wasn't referring to that specifically."

"It's alright," Rhea waved his concern away. "It was my fault and I still feel like I haven't really made up for that. I mean, you nearly died!"

"Yeah. That was pretty terrifying. I wish I could say it was the first time I've been at death's door."

"OK," Rhea leaned forward. "It's pretty obvious that your job falls into the 'high risk' category. What made you decide to do this?"

"Huh, well," Rumlow blew out a quick breath as he thought about her question. The truth was that somewhere inside he knew exactly why he had chosen this life (and why he was living as a double agent). But he was not about to tell Rhea abou that man, so instead he said, "well I guess I've always been a bit of a fighter. I was the underdog when I was a kid so I guess it makes sense I grew up to be a SHIELD agents. Honestly I'm not sure what else I'd be doing with my life."

"Wait," Rhea grinned. "An underdog? I kind of always pictured you as the kid that beat was doing the beating not the one getting beaten!" She laughed. Rumlow felt a little ruffled.  
"What!? It's not like I was some dweeb. I was just kind of small. What about you?" he demanded. "You must have just been a tiny little thing. I bet you took your fair share of pummelings -or whatever it is that girls do. Trash talking, or whatever."

"Uh-uh," Rhea shook her head. "I may have been small but I was nasty. Girls tried to talk shit about me and they'd end up picking bits of teeth and weave off the floor."

Rumlow stared at Rhea. "you're lying," he said suspiciously.

"I'm not," Rhea grinned. "I was a menace when I was younger."

"You're young now! You're only, what, 22?"

"True," Rhea conceded. "I mellowed out pretty quickly once I decided I wanted to be able to be a respectable adult. Arrests tend to be a blemish on one's record."

"Hold on, you got arrested!?"

"No, but it got close a couple of times. Me and a couple of the other foster kids would do all kinds of crazy things when we were bored. Stealing shit from convenience stores, breaking into the pool, vandalizing police cars."

Rumlow looked at her incredulously. "...How!?"

"I was just some foster kid," she shrugged. "I always ended up in some house full of five other kids, in some shit neighborhood. No one was paying attention to me."

"Oh. I'm sorry, that's kind of awful."

"Eh, it's fine," she smiled at him. "I might not have had a nice upbringing or stable home, or even a decent education, but I had fun. I had freedom. And I learned to grow up fast, and to take care of myself. After all, no one else will."

"There are always people who wanna look out for you," Rumlow said quietly.

"I've been learning that recently."

"So," Rumlow cleared his throat. "How'd you go from being a little punk to being this cheerful the-sun'll-come-out-tomorrow kind of gal?"

Rhea shrugged, "Humor's always been my defense mechanism. And I guess I'd rather just grin and bear it than actually wallow in my sorrows. Ya know? As a wise man once said, 'life is dog shit, don't be the dog.'"

"Who," Rumlow laughed. "The fuck has ever said that?"

Just then the server came over with their order. Rhea tore the top of the paper wrapping off her straw, put the tip in her mouth. Rumlow looked up at her, and she blew the wrapper at him.

"Hey!" he laughed, crumpled up the little wrapper and tossing it back towards her. Rhea chuckled into her cocktail.

"What did you get again?" she asked.

"It's an Old Fashion," he answered. When Rhea gave him a quizzical look he explained, "It's a whiskey with bitters. Wanna try it?"

Rhea made a face.

"Come on," he encouraged. "Just give it a try, just a little sip. You never know, you might actually like it."

Reluctantly, Rhea took the drink from Rumlow. She sniffed it first then took a sip.

"Nope, nope." she gagged and handed the drink back quickly. "Oh god it's awful."

"Wow," Rumlow chuckled. "You're really not a whiskey person."

"I'll stick to my vodka."

They chatted and picked at their appetizer. For the first time in a long time they both had forgotten their cares. Rumlow watched Rhea; the way she moved her hands, how the corners of her mouth turned up when he spoke. For the life of him he couldn't remember what had been holding him back from this. There was nothing but contentment in this moment. After about fifteen minutes however, the mood was interrupted after a young man walked past their table. He bumped into Rhea's chair as he headed for the door.

"Pardon," he said.

"No problem," she waved his apology away. She turned back to Rumlow, got a strange look on her face and turned to look at the back of her stool.

"that bastard!" she cried out.

"What!?" Rumlow tensed.

"That guy just stole my purse!" she started up from her chair, fists clenched, but Rumlow grabbed her arm.

"Woah, hold on there! Let's not go beating up random pick pockets."

"I wasn't planning to," she said a little hurt.

"Still," Rumlow's thoughts recalling their conversation about her childhood. "I think it might be best we just play by the rules and call the police."

"By that time all my stuff will be long gone! Bunny, I don't own much in this world anymore and what I do have I would prefer to keep, which is unlikely to happen if we wait for some cop. I know I can get my stuff back. After all," she crooned. "I was trained by the best. Now are you just gonna sit there," (she put a little more sway into hips.) "Or are you gonna help a lady out."

Rumlow hesitated, then put some money down on the table and got up. Rhea grinned at him and raced outside, with him right behind her. She looked both ways and got a glimpse of the man that stolen her purse sidling through the crowd.

"There he is!" she cried. The man turned, saw her pointing at him and took off running.

"There he goes!" said Rumlow and they took off after him. As they ran he said, "I thought we covered the whole not announcing your presence to the enemy thing in training."

"Did we? Doesn't sound familiar."

They raced through the crowd weaving through the pedestrian traffic and trying hard not to push anyone over. The thief darted down a side street up ahead. Rhea had to run right into the building at the street entrance and push off with her hands to change direction. Rumlow skidded a bit as he turned onto the new path. The thief ran across an intersecting street. A car was going by as Rhea began to run across. She hit the front bumper and rolled over the hood. The driver slammed on the breaks shouting hysterically at her. She hit the ground running. Rumlow gestured apologetically at the driver as he ran past.

"It's just a purse!" the thief shouted over his shoulder.

"No!" Rhea yelled back. "It's my purse!"

"Rhea!" Rumlow caught up to her and grabbed her arm. "You're showing!"

She looked down at her arm. It was black up to her elbow.

"Let me get this," Rumlow said. Rhea slowed to a stop. She watched Rumlow race on ahead as she tried to calm herself and revert back to normal. Rumlow was almost neck and neck with the thief. They were leaping over discarded trashcans and broken chairs, and an old homeless man that had to dive against the wall. They were nearing the entrance to another crowded sidewalk. If the thief managed to loose them in this crowd there was whole network of alleys for him to disappear down. Rumlow ran harder still, straight towards an oncoming dumpster. He jumped off a crate onto the top of the dumpster, he then leapt up and off the alley wall, turning in the air, and delivered a kick right into the shocked face of the thief. Rhea came hurrying up the side street to them. The thief was out cold on the ground. Rumlow reached down and returned the stolen purse to Rhea.

"My hero," she smiled breathlessly. Rumlow looked around as he recovered his breath.

"And you didn't put me in the hospital this time," he panted slightly.

"We could fix that if you like," Rhea's eyes, already shining from the adrenaline, lit up a little more with mirth.

"No thanks," Rumlow laughed.

"Really, and here I was starting to think you actually enjoyed that sort of thing," she smirked.

"In much smaller doses, maybe."

"I'll have to keep that in mind," Rhea pushed him against the alley wall.

"Rhea-!?" Rumlow stared down at her in surprise. It wasn't just the running that had his heart beating fast now.

"Bunny. Shush." she grabbed the front of his jacket and pulled him towards her. The world melted into a fuzzy blur, and a pink light seemed to fill their heads. Rumlow found his hands wrapping around Rhea as he leaned towards her. His heart felt like it was trying to jump out his throat. Rhea almost felt sick with butterflies.

"Spare a dollar?" a raspy voice interrupted. The homeless man had sidled up to them and held out his hand imploringly. Rhea let go of Rumlow's collar and took a step back. She looked at the ground and tried not to laugh. Rumlow straightened up and stared heavenwards, rubbing his grisly chin. Life just wasn't fair sometimes.

"spare a dollar miss?" the man asked again.

"uh, yeah, um," She rummaged in her purse. "I think I have some change..."

"Here," Rumlow pulled out his wallet and took a few dollars from it. As he handed them to the old man he looked into his face. Rumlow froze.

"You alright, kid?" the old man asked. The words echoed in Rumlow's head. Suddenly he was a child again. He was looking into the face of that man. The man leaned down, "You alright, kid?"

"heh," the bum laughed nervously. "what's wrong with him, huh?"

"Bunny," Rhea was nervous. The tension she had felt growing in Rumlow ever since the Haiti mission had finally broken, and a flood of terror was cascading forward. He was just frozen, looking through the old man in front of him.

"Rumlow," Rhea tried again, her heart was tight with fear.

"Rumlow?" the old man's eyes widened as if recalling something. He took a step back. "Rum-!? You're not-!"

Suddenly Rumlow was gone, tearing through the crowded sidewalk at the end of the alley.

"RUMLOW!" rhea shouted. She whipped round to face the homeless man. He too now reeked of fear. "Who are you!?" she demanded.

"N-no one!" he stammered, backing away. "I'm nobody! I' nobody!" he turned and ran off in the opposite direction.

Rhea threw her hands up on her head in desperate bewilderment. She turned back to see if she could spot Rumlow then turned back in the direction the old man had gone in. On the gritty pavement, the thief was stirring. He held his jaw and moaned.

"What the hell!?" he mumbled.

"THAT'S MY LINE!" Rhea yelled at him.


End file.
